April 23, 2009
The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. and Furukawa Automotive Systems Inc. (Head office: Koura-cho, Inukami-gun, Shiga Prefecture) (the "Furukawa Electric Group") announce the acquisition of a majority stake in Lear Furukawa Corporation ("Lear Furukawa") on April 6, 2009. Lear Furukawa was a joint venture between Lear Corporation (Head office: Michigan, USA; "Lear"), which held an 80% stake, and the Furukawa Electric Group, which held a 20% stake. The acquisition of the majority stake in Lear Furukawa was a result of the Furukawa Electric Group acquiring 60% of the shares of Lear Furukawa held by Lear, raising its stakes from 20% to 80%.
Based on this initiative, the Furukawa Electric Group will seek to have Lear Furukawa quickly establish its base of operations, and will strive to expand the trade area of automotive component operations in North America.
Background and purpose of acquisition of majority stake
Lear Furukawa was founded in 1987 by the Furukawa Electric Group and United Technology Automotive to manufacture and sell wire harnesses to Japanese automobile manufacturers in North America. It continued to manufacture and sell wire harnesses under management led by Lear after the acquisition of United Technology Automotive by Lear. With the acquisition, Lear Furukawa will seek to expand its trade area by enhancing QCDDM (Note 1). Lear Furukawa will also change its name to Furukawa Lear Corporation.
Company profile after change of equity
| Name | Furukawa Lear Corporation |
| Head office | El Paso City, Texas, USA |
| Controlling share | The Furukawa Electric Group: 80% (The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.: 48%, Furukawa Automotive Systems Inc.: 32%); Lear: 20% |
| President | Akira Matsui (The Furukawa Electric Group) |
| Directors | Three directors from Furukawa Electric Group and two from Lear Effective date of equity change: April 6, 2009 |
| Paid-in capital | 8 million US dollars (Approximately 800 million yen) |
| Sales for 2008 | Approximately 100 million US dollars (Approximately 10 billion yen) |
| Number of employees | Approximately 1,500 (As at the end of 2008) |
Glossary
(Note 1)QCDDM:
QCDDM is an abbreviation for the quality, cost, delivery, development and management that are required by automobile manufacturers from their suppliers.Back to Main Content