The Sona Group, one of India's leading automotive components manufacturers, has signed an agreement to acquire the entire 25 per cent stake of Mitsubishi Materials in the Sona BLW Precision Forging Limited. The Sona Group had an annual turnover of Rs. 2,400 crore and Sona BLW Precision Forgings Limited (SBPFL) is the business group's flagship company.
Speaking on the occasion, Sunjay Kapur, Chairman, Sona Group, said "We are moving ahead rapidly to cement our global leadership position in the precision forging business. We are indeed grateful to Mitsubishi Materials for having partnered with us as we explored, researched and developed new materials, processes and technologies for the next generation driveline components. They have agreed to our suggestion to buy out their stake. This transaction is a step in a transformational phase in Sona's journey. As a totally private company, Sona BLW Precision Forgings Limited can now delve deeper into R&D and make significant commitments and investments into the future of the global precision forgings business."
The Sona BLW company was formed in 1995 with Sona AutoComp Holdings Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials coming together. The company also fully acquired the precision forging business of Thyssen Krupp. Thyssen Krupp was one of the world leaders in warm forging, making components for car, buses, construction equipment, agricultural applications and so on.
Earlier in the year, Sona Group had sold its entire 25.12 per cent stake in the Sona Koyo Steering Systems to its Japanese partner JTEKT Corp for Rs. 419.28 crore. Sunjay Kapur said that it is a step in a transformational phase for the Group. The company wants to focus on precision forging and would like to become a global leader in the market.
At present, SBPFL has seven plants in India, Germany and Hungary with companies like Daimler, Volkswagen Group, Renault, and BMW sourcing automotive components from the company. The India division of SBPFL caters to the component needs of Mahindra and Mahindra, TAFE, Escorts, Volvo Eicher, Bharat Benz and so on.
