German automotive company acquires company, plans name change

(Seguin) —  Vitesco Technologies has officially been acquired and will soon have a new name.

Vitesco officials have confirmed that the company has been acquired by the Schaeffler Group, a very large German manufacturer of rolling element bearings for automotive, aerospace, and industrial uses.

Officials say the two companies have cleared several milestones over this past year to get to this point.

Sharing more insight behind this merger agreement is Mike Stoller, Head of Communications for Vitesco North America.

“The genesis of this is Vitesco Technologies was acquired by the Schaeffler Group and this started with a shareholder tender offer late last year. So, Schaeffler was already our largest shareholder at just under 50 percent of our outstanding stock and they made an offer to increase that by buying shares from other shareholders and as we sit here today — last I saw, I think they had acquired enough to be around 90 percent and have thus acquired the company,” said Stoller.

As Stoller mentioned, Schaeffler Group is no stranger to Vitesco, and says the company has been an integral part of the company’s history.

“It is certainly a known entity for us and so there is a lot of history that goes back with Schaeffler. Schaeffler and our former parent company in Continental were also linked. There was some activity between the two more than a decade ago in which Schaeffler became a major shareholder of Continental and had people on the board for the company and was certainly privy to strategic plans of the company. When Vitesco Technologies, as the power-train group within Continental, spun off almost four years ago now in 2020, Schaeffler as I mentioned became the largest shareholder of ours almost immediately so they have had representation on our board of directors as well.

So, they are a known entity, similar companies. Schaeffler Group has been thriving innovations and developments in the field of motion technology for more than 75 years. So, they are another long established automotive and other industries supplier owned by the Schaeffler family and in some ways, we may consider ourselves cousins at a point of both being German automotive supplier companies,” said Stoller.

They say most notably, during fiscal year 2023, profitability and cash flow surpassed the company’s expectations.

The company “achieved further profitable growth, won major orders, and advanced its leading position in the electromobility market.”

Stoller says he believes it is this continued success that has positioned the company favorably in the electromobility market.

“Vitesco is doing very well and has been doing very well which is probably why this transaction is taking place. Since our separation from Continental and our decision as a company to move in the electrification side of the company, that has been very successful for us. From our numbers last year, we had more than €€9 billion  in sales which was up from 2022. Our order intake from what we had in the future from last year, exceeded €12 billion and our entire book of backlogs is over €€58 billion. So, I would first just say that Vitesco is a very healthy company and the merger with Schaeffler really is an opportunity for a combination in terms of what both companies do very well,” said Stoller.

Unlike some acquisitions, Stoller says this merger sustains the future growth of the company.

“This isn’t an acquisition of efficiency or redundancy where there might be associated layoffs or things of that sort that could go with some of these transactions. This is one of addition and so the things that Vitesco has done very well is something that Schaeffler wishes to add to its portfolio and certainly to your question, our facility in Seguin, Texas remains kind of our crown jewel of our operations here in North America and I would say for Vitesco globally. So at the end of this transaction, the new Schaeffler Group will have annual revenues in excess of $25 billion, 120,000 employees around the world and will be certainly be inside the Top 10 — around the Top 5 auto suppliers in the world. What that translates into is opportunity and growth and certainly in our facility in Seguin, it is key to what we are doing currently and key to what we are going to be doing in the future,” said Stoller.

Of course, Stoller says the company will soon integrate itself in the community with new branding anticipated in the fourth quarter of this year.

“The branding of the company is going to change and so it will reflect the Schaeffler organization so as people in the area ask, ‘what happened to Vitesco?’ Nothing happened to Vitesco other than we will be merging with Schaeffler and we will assume the Schaeffler branding identity,” said Stoller.

Company officials say that given Schaeffler’s reputation throughout the industry, they are excited to become part of such a historic company and to become part of the world’s sixth-largest automotive supplier.

He says Vitesco especially thanks the Seguin community for its long-standing role in the company’s success.

“We are certainly appreciative of the community’s support of our operations. We’ve been there for more than 50 years in one form or another. We certainly look to continue that. We will try to become not just a valuable piece of the economic conditions there in South Central Texas and also the United States and in the Region. But we are also doing things that are new and inventive. I think you are familiar with some of our sustainability efforts that bring some advantage to the area. We just installed a solar farm at our plant in Seguin which uses some of their renewable resources for powering the plant and taking some burden off the local electrical grid there in the area. So that is an investment that we have made. We just commissioned that this year and there’s other phases of that that we are looking at doing and I also would say that in our growth, we are certainly hiring and so if there are people looking for opportunities for a job, I would encourage them to visit our website, Vitsesco.com and on the career’s tab, there are a number of open positions unique to Seguin whether they be hourly or professional positions in our engineering ranks,” said Stoller.

The company’s long legacy in Seguin started with Motorola and then became Continental and later Vitesco. It will now be Schaeffler.

The company’s facility is located at 3740 N. Austin St., near its intersection with State Highway 123 Bypass.