Flex-N-Gate Makes Binding Offer to Acquire Seven Plants in Europe

Flex-N-Gate Group today delivered a binding offer to Plastic Omnium to acquire seven Plastic Omnium plants in Europe – four in France, one in Spain and two in Germany – as part of a divestiture required by the European Commission following Plastic Omnium’s recent acquisition of Faurecia Auto Exterior.

As a result of the binding offer for this stand-alone business, Plastic Omnium has agreed to enter into exclusive negotiations with Flex-N-Gate, headquartered in Urbana, Illinois.

Plastic Omnium, ranked by Automotive News as the 29^th largest supplier in the world, committed to selecting a purchaser with sufficient experience and resources to acquire and continue these businesses, including their roughly 2,000 affected employees. Flex-N-Gate more than meets these criteria.

Flex-N-Gate is ranked by Automotive News as the 10^th largest original equipment supplier in North America and the 38^th largest supplier in the world. Flex-N-Gate employs more than 18,000 people at 55 manufacturing facilities and nine product development and engineering facilities throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, China, Japan, Brazil and Spain.

Flex-N-Gate’s growth has been inspired by the leadership of Shahid Khan, who purchased the business in the 1980s and today is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League, the London-based Fulham Football Club and the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto.

“The pending transaction aligns with our core philosophies of implementing strategic acquisitions aimed to expand Flex-N-Gate’s geographic footprint, continuing to serve our current customers with new capacities and forging new partnerships with important European automotive customers not presently within our company portfolio,” Khan said. “Acquiring these seven plants in France, Spain and Germany would accomplish those goals while deepening our European roots, where we have long-standing successful Spanish operations. With the continued commitment of the transaction’s more than 2,000 employees who would become part of the Flex-N-Gate family, we look forward to successful business growth.”

Plastic Omnium was authorized on July 11 to acquire Faurecia's Exterior Systems business subject to the disposal of certain assets, which represented approximately $700 million (Euros) in revenue, split evenly between (1) the French and Spanish sites for the bumper business, and (2) the front-end module assembly business in Germany, all of which will be acquired by Flex-N-Gate following the appropriate approvals expected in 2017.

The proposed transaction must undergo the procedures relating to the staff representation bodies in the countries concerned, and then must obtain the authorizations from the European Commission and the competent competition authorities.

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Contact information

For Flex-N-Gate
Jim Woodcock, 314-982-7778
jim.woodcock@fleishman.com