Bosch-Mahle Turbo Joint Venture For Sale

Bosch and Mahle said they’re looking for a buyer for their joint turbocharger business Bosch Mahle Turbo Systems (BMTS). The joint venture was founded in 2008 and employs around 1400 people, developing and producing turbochargers for manufacturers of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Production is largely based in St. Michael, Austria, and in Shanghai, China, along with two additional locations in Germany, Stuttgart and Blaichach. While the venture has enjoyed some success, it is not yet large enough to achieve sustainable results, according to Dr. Rolf Bulander, chairman of the Business Sector Mobility Solutions at Bosch. “Large production quantities and the associated economies of scale represent a critical competitive advantage,” he said. “Despite bulk orders received from renowned customers, the associated high capacity utilization at our plants, and above-average growth rates, present sales volumes at BMTS are still too low in comparison with our larger competitors and must be further expanded.” Further investments are needed to achieve the scale required and both Bosch and Mahle need to focus investments chiefly on new areas of development. “Thanks to our state-of-the-art locations and BMTS’s good products, we are currently confident of finding a prospective buyer, who will successfully expand the business,” said Wolf-Henning Scheider, chairman of the Mahle management board and CEO of the Mahle Group. The international market for turbochargers is expected to continue to grow in the years ahead as the trend toward smaller engines fitted with turbochargers, especially for hybrid drives, remains strong, the companies said. The company’s most recent achievement is the development of a variable turbine geometry for exhaust gas turbochargers in gasoline engines in large-scale production. In recent years, the company has made considerable investments in production processes, including end-of-line testing. BMTS claimed to be the world’s first company to test the perfect functionality of each individual exhaust gas turbocharger in a fully automated process at the end of the production line. Employee representatives and employees have been informed about the intention to sell the joint venture. Discussions are taking place with the relevant employee representatives to prepare the next steps in the sale process. www.mahle.com