It is one of the most important distinguishing features of new cars: the architecture of light and its ever-increasing radiance. Here the stripe shape in the rear light, there the silhouette of a hammer in the headlight. One of the market leaders in this area is the North Rhine-Westphalian company Hella. With all sorts of products for visible light and with radar systems, the automotive supplier turned over 6.5 billion euros in the past financial year. But now the company with its 36,000 employees is losing its independence – and the majority owner is making good money with it at the same time. The vehicle technology group Faurecia from France, previously a cooperation partner, swallows the automotive supplier. A business that both advertise as a “merger”.
As the two companies announced, the French are taking over 60 percent of the shares in the M-Dax group for just under four billion euros from the previous owner family, the Hueck. The family receives 3.4 billion euros of this in cash, the rest in Faurecia shares. The French group is also submitting an offer of 60 euros per share to all other shareholders of the lighting specialist and thus remains slightly below the share price last Friday. The Hella share had risen significantly since the end of April after the Hueck family’s sales plans became known.
The French buyer emphasized that Hella should play an important role in the future: “Lippstadt will be the global headquarters for three of six business areas.” Faurecia is about three times the size of Hella, had annual sales of 14.7 billion euros and 114,000 employees in 2020 and is one of the most important suppliers for the brands of the Stellantis car group (Peugeot, Citroën, Opel). The group wants to expand its portfolio through the acquisition – and reduce the annual costs by more than 200 million euros. The French said they would achieve a critical size and take leading positions in all business areas. The new company will be the seventh largest automotive supplier globally (top 5 in Europe and top 10 in America and Asia). In the top group of this industry are numerous German companies, such as Bosch, Conti and ZF.
The sale of the 60 percent package from the widespread founding family seemed necessary, as the joint deal concluded when the company went public in 2014 would soon expire. After that it would have become more difficult to bundle the interests of the approximately 60 owners. “Their responsibility for the company requires the family to hand over the baton for management and control early, safely and in an orderly manner,” said Jürgen Behrend, head of the pool of family shareholders and formerly Hella managing director himself. Since 1923, the Hueck family has held the majority in the company, which was founded in 1899 and which began with kerosene lights and which today also produces many blue light systems for government vehicles.