deal Street Stake would be acquired partly from Taco and through an open offer made to Asal shareholders Post-acquisition, Gestamp and Taco would become Asal promoters Gestamp is initially planning to acquire over 19.02 lakh shares of Asal

Mumbai, Feb. 17: Spain-based Gestamp Servicios SL will acquire a 37.5 per cent stake in Automotive Stampings & Assemblies Ltd (Asal), a Tata group company.

This stake will be acquired partly from Tata AutoComp Systems Ltd (Taco) and through an open offer made to Asal shareholders.

Asal provides sheet metal components and welded assemblies to automotive companies from its three manufacturing facilities in India. Its products include inner doors, inner bonnets and cabin parts for three-wheelers.

Taco holds over 81 per cent in the company.

The rest is held by institutions, corporate bodies and individuals.

The stake sale has been done to obtain superior technology from Gestamp. An agreement is expected to be signed shortly.

In a notice issued to the stock exchanges today, Asal said that Gestamp would acquire the stake at a price of Rs 94.96 per share.

It said the number of equity shares that Gestamp would acquire from Taco would depend on how much equity shares are tendered by public shareholders in response to the open offer.

Post-acquisition, it is expected that Gestamp and Taco Ltd would become the promoters of Asal.

Gestamp is initially planning to acquire over 19.02 lakh shares of Asal.

According to the company, after completion of the sale of shares, it would become a joint venture company of Taco and Gestamp.

Gestamp and Taco will eventually have 50:50 equity stake in the company.

Taco oversees the Tata group’s presence in the auto component space.

The Taco group, that includes various companies, offers a range of products to automotive vehicle manufacturers. It has joint ventures with global auto component manufacturers.

The Taco group has 24 manufacturing plants, five engineering centres and three export-oriented units. Its current customers include DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra and Mahindra, Piaggio, Tata Motors, Toyota, and Volvo.

The group has set sights on being among the top 100 global auto component companies by 2008 with a turnover of over $1 billion and exports comprising 50 per cent of its turnover.

The group designs and manufactures various components, including seating systems, aluminium radiators, lighting systems, brake discs and braking systems, rear view mirrors and automotive batteries.