Stone Plant Investments B.V., an affiliate of Warburg Pincus has acquired a majority stake in Imperial Auto Industries Limited and its affiliated companies (“Imperial” or the “Group”).
Imperial is a manufacturer of fluid transmission products (“FTP”) for automobile and off-highway sectors and was founded in 1969, The Group claims to generate revenues of approximately Rs. 2,200 crores, offers a diversified product portfolio that includes rubber hoses, metal/nylon tubes and hose assemblies, as well as a rapidly growing portfolio of battery cooling products used in electric vehicles. The Group has over 20 manufacturing facilities across India, Germany, and the US through which it serves OEMs in both domestic and overseas markets. The Group has a product library of over 25,000 SKUs used across a wide range of FTP applications and seeks to be a one-stop provider for all its customers.
The Group is positioned to capitalise on domestic demand revival. The company claims to be making significant strides in capturing the large export opportunity presented by recent disruptions of US and global supply chains, due to its global cost leadership position and execution track record. It is also playing to the EV trend and developing battery cooling products by leveraging its core capabilities in fluid transmission. The Group will continue to be led by the current CEO and promoter, Tarun Lamba, who will drive the business going forward in partnership with Warburg Pincus.
Tarun Lamba, Managing Director and CEO, Imperial, said “This is a very interesting time in the auto industry, and we are excited to partner with Warburg Pincus to help us strengthen our position as a leading global FTP components supplier out of India. This investment will help us fund our future growth plans which include capacity expansion, creation of best-in-class facilities for domestic and export clients and acceleration of EV related product development. Our association with Warburg Pincus should enable us to further attract high quality talent to Imperial and bring new capabilities to the market.”
Viraj Sawhney, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus India, said “Imperial has a highly customer centric approach which has helped it become the undisputed market leader in the FTP segment in India. We are impressed by the Group’s long track record of growth, a very diversified and high-quality global customer base and industry leading return metrics. We look forward to supporting Tarun and the team and leveraging the Imperial platform to build a leading diversified Indian auto components player serving both automotive and off-highway markets including electric vehicles.”
EY acted as the sole financial advisor to Imperial.
