The Hindu Business Line : Amtek Auto buys UK co

New Delhi June 5 Auto component maker, Amtek Auto Ltd, part of $650-million Amtek Group, on Tuesday announced that it had acquired assets of UK based JL French's (Witham) Ltd (JLF) to gain access to aluminium foundries for its component manufacturing business. JLF is engaged in the business of die-casting solutions that includes product designs, simulation, testing, rapid prototyping precision machining and assembly. The company's current sales revenues with its 60 per cent capacity utilisation stands at $60 million, said the company in a statement. It also said JLF has the facility to make a variety of aluminium castings for companies such as Land Rover, Jaguar, Trellborg, Ford and Peugeot.

European market

"We have bought JLF for $35 million. With aluminium likely to be used extensively in component manufacturing in the future instead of iron and steel, we have acquired capacity worth 20,000 tonnes per annum to meet the requirements over the next year or two," said Mr Santosh Singhi, CFO, Amtek Group. While JLF mainly caters to the European automotive market, Amtek is also exploring the possibility of leveraging its business for other markets. Mr Singhi said that this was the first move of the company to enter into aluminium-based component manufacturing. According to him, of the 18 production lines at JLF's UK plant, Amtek would be shifting five-six production lines to its Pune facility every year and expects that over the next two-three years, most of the demand would be sourced from there.

Amtek Auto expects the buyout would fetch the company revenues of $8-9 million annually two years from now.