Samvardhana Motherson International, through its subsidiary of SMRP has entered into an agreement to acquire 81 percent stake in Yachiyo’s 4W (Y4W) business from Honda Motor, while the Japanese company will continue to retain the remaining share.
The 81:19% strategic partnership will see both partners drive the company towards a strong and sustainable future and be fully prepared for next-generation products and technologies.
Yachiyo Industry is a publicly listed (Tokyo Stock Exchange) subsidiary of Honda Motor Co, which comprises of 4W and 2W businesses. As a part of the overall transaction, the 2W business (housed under Goshi Giken) will be transferred to Honda Motor before Motherson acquires the majority stake in Yachiyo’s 4W business.
At present, Yachiyo’s 4W business employs around 3,200 employees across its 13 manufacturing facilities and 3 R&D centres across 8 countries including the USA, Brazil, Mexico, China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and India with reported revenue of 116 billion Japanese Yen (Rs 7,076 crore) and EBITDA of 13 billion Japanese Yen (Rs 793 crore) respectively for FY2023. The equity value of the business is 23 billion Japanese Yen (Rs 1,403 crore) for 100% stake.
As a worldwide strategic supplier to Honda Motor with a fully aligned footprint, Yachiyo 4W supports in substantially all of its sunroof and fuel tank requirements at each manufacturing location. Motherson Group believes that sunroof systems have high growth potential globally due to an increase in demand and are expected to see a surge in application across all car segments. Transition to hybrid vehicles will continue to see the use of plastic fuel tanks. The trend of fuel cell powertrain is also aligned with Type-4 hydrogen storage tanks in the advance stages of development.
Yachiyo 4W has developed multiple value-added next-generation products like lighter plastic tailgates and Type-4 hydrogen storage tanks. Furthermore, the close proximity to Honda Motor plants across the globe provides an opportunity to offer existing products of Motherson to Honda Motor globally.
Vivek Chaand Sehgal, Chairman, Motherson said, “These new product segments are in line with our increasing content per car strategy as well as our customer-centric approach. We believe this business will be highly synergistic with Motherson’s existing portfolio as we see ample opportunities to grow this new business globally by leveraging our global relationships with automotive OEMs.”
Currently, Yachiyo can produce 2.5 million units of sunroofs across 6 locations globally, while the plastic fuel tanks will see growing demand on the back of evolving lightweight needs.
