Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) spin off Visteon Corp (NYSE:VC) announced on Wednesday, December 17th that it was selling its 70% stake in South Korean Halla Visteon Climate Control, a maker of air-conditioning and heating systems for autos, to Hahn & Company and Hankook Tire for around $3.6 billion. Doing the math, that means the deal is worth just over $47.52 per share.
Hahn & Company and Hankook noted plans to focus on expanding Halla Visteon’s customer base and improving its operations and research efforts.
The companies anticipate the deal will close by June 2015.
Visteon hired Rothschild, UBS and the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as advisers in its stake sale.
Statement from Visteon
“H.V.C.C. is a solid business with innovative technology, a broad global footprint and a strong business backlog, thanks to a seasoned management team and record business wins in 2014,” Timothy D. Leuliette, CEO of Visteon, commented in a statement released Wednesday morning. “We feel this is an opportune time to create additional value for shareholders by selling our ownership interest in H.V.C.C. and concentrating on our cockpit electronics and connected car portfolio, which is well-positioned to capitalize on the emerging era of the connected vehicle.”
More on the Halla Visteon stake sale
The deal means Visteon will be able to cash in on its investment in the company almost 30 years after it was founded as a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and the Mando Machinery Corporation of South Korea. Visteon took over control of the business in 1999 as it was being spun out of Ford.
In its statement, Visteon Corp (NYSE:VC) said the price it paid represented around 10.1 times Halla Visteon’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the year ending September 30.
Earlier this summer, Visteon agreed to a deal to sell a majority stake in its global automotive-interiors business to a holding company of Cerberus Capital Management LP.
