For once, things are happening the other way round in the international automotive supplier business: it is not the Americans who are buying in Europe but a European company which is acquiring a global player with headquarters in the USA. The British automotive suppliers and machine-builders TI Group plc (50 Curzon Street, GB-London W1Y 7PN) are buying US automotive supplier Walbro Corp. (Auburn Hills, Michigan 48326 / USA) for USD 570m. According to TI boss, Bill Laule, this will make the group into the world´s leading producer of plastic petrol tanks and petrol lines for vehicles.

Walbro achieved sales of USD 680m in 1998, with 28 plants in 15 countries and a payroll of around 5,000. In Europe, Walbro has two relatively new plants in Belgium and Great Britain; added to this come the production plants that Dyno (N-0106 Oslo) sold to Walbro in 1995. The merged TI and Walbro activities will go under the name of TI Automotive Systems Group in future. Total sales are put at around USD 2bn.

READER SERVICE: Basic information on the TI Group and Walbro, and details of the transaction (English): PIE-No. 43719.