For German headlamp and electronics specialist Hella (Lippstadt; www.hella.com), there seems to be no joint future with Knorr-Bremse (Munich / Germany; www.knorr-bremse.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 05.07.2021. The technology group has announced it will abandon plans to acquire a majority stake in Hella.

Knorr CEO Jan Mrosik justified the decision by saying a Hella takeover offered insufficient opportunities for bringing key technologies and products into his company’s product portfolio. This argument surprised more than analysts as it must have been clear in Munich beforehand whether and what synergies could be leveraged, especially for the favoured commercial vehicle sector.

As things stand, only two possible buyers are remain from a group of purported strategic investors: French competitor Plastic Omnium (Levallois; www.plasticomnium.com) and its compatriot Faurecia (Nanterre; www.faurecia.com), which are both connected to Hella through various cooperations. However, like Knorr, both would have to take on substantial debt to finance the purchase of the 60% stake held by the Hueck and Röpke families.