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The German Brose Group is to acquire Continental AG’s electric motor operations, the sale having been agreed by the two companies on December 20, (subject to the approval of the EU competition authorities). "Considerations along these lines had already been discussed at Siemens VDO Automotive AG,” said Continental's chairman, Manfred Wennemer. (Siemens VDO has only recently been acquired by Continental.)

The business acquired by Brose supplies electric motors for window regulators, anti-lock braking systems (ABS/ESC), heating/ventilation, engine cooling and electric power steering. All facilities will be transferred to Brose. Hybrid powertrain activities located in Berlin will not be affected by the transac¬tion. Outside Germany, there are six former Siemens VDO plants in La Suze/France, Gainesville/U.S.A., Reynosa/Mexico, as well as in Shanghai, Zhangjiagang and Chanchun (all in China). Only individual produc¬tion lines are being sold at the sites in Trutnov/Czech Republic, Budapest/Hungary and Salto/Brazil.

Continental has approximately 4,200 employees working for electric motor operations, whose sales this year totalled €740 million.

Brose - with over 70 million units per annum - is the world's biggest buyer of electric motors. "In-house production of a de¬fined scope of core components is as much a part of our strategy as the gradual enlargement of our range by adding products. Both these aspects can be ideally fulfilled with the acquired motors business," said Brose Group CEO Jürgen Otto last week.