Carlyle Sells AxleTech
As auto parts makers are suspended in limbo awaiting the federal intervention—or, refusal—to save the Big Three automakers, General Dynamics makes a M&A play.
November 19, 2008
The Carlyle Group, an international private equity firm, sold AxleTech International, a portfolio company that manufactures and sells parts for military vehicles, commercial vehicles and off-highway machines to General Dynamics, a listed Virginia that has typically done work in the defense space.
The move may signal an increase in General Dynamics’ desire to enter the infrastructure space, since AxleTech International supplies parts to construction, materials handling, forestry, mining and agricultural activities.
“AxleTech International is a well-run company with a strong management team and a skilled workforce that offers a high-value line of quality products to a global customer base,” said Charles M. Hall, General Dynamics executive vice president for Combat Systems. “We look forward to maintaining and strengthening the relationships AxleTech International enjoys with its existing customers, expanding and diversifying the technical products General Dynamics provides to customers around the world, and pursuing new markets together through collaboration among the product experts at each company.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed; General Dynamics has been making several acquisitions to bolster its business over the last two years. The most recent one, in July 2008, General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of the Company, announced that it completed the purchase of ViPS, Inc., from HLTH Corporation.
“We are very pleased to be joining General Dynamics,” said Mary Petrovich, chief executive of AxleTech International. “The expertise and competencies that each of our companies brings to this relationship will create a stronger, more-competitive provider of quality vehicle components and subsystems to customers around the world.”
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