November 19, 2018
The Novares Venture Capital Fund has acquired a stake of 20% in APAG Holding AG to develop Novares innovative solutions portfolio with integrated lighting and mechatronics devices and improve the car-user experience.
After clearance of the relevant antitrust authorities, the transaction was closed on the 26th of October, 2018. The Closing was held in Switzerland near APAG-CoSyst’s headquarter in presence of Anand Kanoria, CEO of APAG, and Pierre-Olivier Beck, Head of M&A and Corporate Development of Novares.
Novares Venture Capital was created in February 2018 by the Novares Group to support innovation and start-ups with technical expertise in fields adding value to Novares’ products such as plastronics and mechatronics.
APAG-CoSyst is an innovative Swiss company that designs, develops, and produces electronic control units (ECUs) and LED-based lighting modules for automotive OEMs such as BMW, Audi and Porsche. The company has Technical Centers in Germany, Switzerland and Detroit. The focus functions for APAG-CoSyst’s products are actuator control, sensor data processing, multi-function gateways, exterior accent lighting, and small interior peripheral functional and aesthetic lighting.
APAG’s 2017-18 revenues amounted to circa60 MCHF with 450 employees.
Novares Venture Capital’s equity injection, via an issue of new shares, will be used by APAG to boost innovation and to finance its footprint extension with a new manufacturing facility in Canada and an extension of its plant in the Czech Republic.
Its new manufacturing facility in Canada, located in Windsor, Ontario, plans to create 148 jobs, including high-tech research and development positions within five years. With an $11-million investment, the new building is being transformed into a clean facility for the development and production of electronic components.
Novares has a permanents eaton the APAG Board of Directors and creates a joint Innovation Committee.
In the short term, Novares’ product portfolio will integrate APAG’s technology for complete sub-systems such as illuminated interior and exterior components, interior trims and air vents. In the mid-term, the combination of both companies areas of expertise will lead to the development and manufacturing of controls to drive mechatronics components, such as smart surfaces, screens, cameras, sensors and actuators integrated into Novares products, developed by Novares and its partners. For example, a possible application would be the development of controls for flexible displays and external camera systems to replace exterior mirrors.
“APAG-CoSyst was looking for viable opportunities to participate in future technologies in the fast-changing design & peripheral user-interaction area of the automotive sector. Working jointly with Novares is an opportunity for APAG-CoSyst that will hopefully help bring innovative ideas from Novares and other partners to life; whilst allowing us to even better serve our existing customers with investments to expand capacity and enhance capability ”, says Anand Kanoria, APAG-CoSyst Managing Director.
“Looking at the mega trends in automotive sector, the vehicle of the future is connected, autonomous, shared, electric and yearly updated. This investment of Novares Venture Capital in APAG-CoSyst along with those in FlexEnable and Actronika, is a cornerstone of Novares’ development and cooperation strategy to assemble a full range of plastronics and mechatronics technologies. This consistent pole of technological bricks allows Novares to propose to our customers complete innovative solutions connected together to produce cleaner, lighter, autonomous and user-friendly vehicles with HMIs (Human Machine Interface) that improve passengers experience”, declares Pierre Boulet, Novares CEO.
Novares was advised by MP Corporate Finance (Ron Alon) and WILD Rechtsanwalt AG (Nicolas Camara).The financial and tax due diligences were performed by Deloitte (Cyril Stivala and Mathieu Gautier).
APAG was advised by Schwartzkopff Partners AG (Wolfgang Schwartzkopff) and PST Legal AG (Patrick Storchenegger).
About Novares
Mecaplast – Key Plastics rebranded as Novares on September 19th, 2017.
Headquartered in France, Novares is a global plastic solutions provider that designs and manufactures complex components & systems serving the future of the automotive industry. The company creates and produces cutting edge automotive parts and specializes in technical plastic injection that contributes to cleaner, lighter, more connected, user-friendly cars.
Novares provides engineering and manufacturing expertise to virtually every OEM and many Tier-1 companies in the automotive market. Novares’ 2017 revenues amount to €1.2 billion.
End of 2017, the group is present in 21 countries, and operates 42 Manufacturing Plants, 7 Skill Centers, 5 Technical Centers and 17 Customer Service Centers, around the globe to partner with customers.
