European Commission clears $1bn acquisition of Interplex

Jan 4, 2022 | News

The European Commission has cleared the $1bn acquisition of interconnect specialist Interplex by US private equity giant Blackstone.

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of contract manufacturer Interplex and its five sites in Europe by US asset management giant Blackstone.

Interplex, headquartered in Singapore, is globally active in the design and manufacture of customised interconnect and moved into contract equipment manufacturing (CEM) of industrial and medical systems. It bought connector and interconnect maker OCP in January 2021 and has been focussing on battery interconnect for electric vehicles and autonomous driving.

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The fifty year old company has 13,000 employees across 33 sites in 13 countries, with sites in Arbroath, Scotland, Dannemarie sur Crête in France, Heilbronn in Germany, Pisek in Czechia and Kunszentmarton in Hungary.

It was owned by Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), having been bought from CVC capital Partners for US$320m in 2015 which took the company private. The current deal is expected to be worth around $1bn and the Commission was notified of the deal at the start of December 2021.

The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns as Blackstone and Interplex are not active on the same or closely related markets.

Blackstone owns Aypa Power in the US as well as a range of software and logistics companies and real estate, but sees lithium battery technology as a key factor for the US in 2022.

Source: EE News Europe

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