M&A News: Carlyle, Solus JV to buy most of Metaldyne Corporation's assets

MD Investors Corporation will buy most of the assets of the company which went into administration in the US after a downturn in the US auto-industry. It blames sudden poor liquidity and excessive borrowing on dramatically reduced demand - and delayed payments - from within the US motor industry.

Metaldyne is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo-listed Asahi Tec and specialises in drive train and anti-vibration technologies. With a turnover of USD157,000 million last year, the company has operations all over the world: more than 4,400 employees at 33 facilities in 14 countries.

Under the terms of the parties' asset purchase agreement, MD Investors will purchase the following assets:

-- All of Metaldyne's Sintered Products, European Forgings and Vibration Controls Products operations located in Europe, Asia, Brazil, Mexico and the United States

-- Plants in Bluffton, Indiana.; Litchfield, Mich., and, subject to certain conditions, Twinsburg, Ohio

-- Metaldyne's balance shaft module operations, which are located at Metaldyne's plants in Fremont, Indiana, and Pyeongtaek, Korea

-- Metaldyne's tubular products operations housed at Metaldyne's Hamburg, Michigan., plant, which produces fabricated exhaust manifolds and other tube-formed products

-- Metaldyne's' chassis operations in Edon, Ohio; Barcelona, Spain, Iztapalapa, Mexico, and subject to certain conditions, operations in Greensboro, North Carolina.