Visteon To Sell 70% Stake In Halla Visteon Climate Control For About $3.6 Bln

(RTTNews) - Automotive supplier Visteon Corp. (VC) said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its 70 percent ownership interest in Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp. to South Korea-based private equity firm Hahn & Co. and Korean tire maker Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. for about $3.6 billion.

Visteon noted that the deal will enable it to focus on its automotive cockpit electronics business and connected car portfolio.

Under the terms of the deal, Visteon will sell its 70 percent stake to an affiliate of Hahn & Co. and Hankook Tire for 52,000 Korean won, or $47.58 per share.

Halla Visteon Climate Control or HVCC is the world's second-largest provider of vehicle thermal management solutions. The company's products include heating ventilation and air conditioning, compressors, powertrain cooling and electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicle thermal systems, among other.

HVCC has 36 manufacturing sites supported by four global technical centers in 19 countries, and employs nearly 15,500 people. HVCC is traded on the Korea Stock Exchange.

In late November, Visteon confirmed that it was in talks with Hahn & Co. regarding a potential sale of its ownership interest in HVCC.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015. Visteon said it will provide further details of the transaction on January 13, 2015 at the Deutsche Bank 2015 Global Auto Industry Conference in Detroit.

Timothy Leuliette, President and CEO of Visteon said, "We feel this is an opportune time to create additional value for shareholders by selling our ownership interest in HVCC and concentrating on our cockpit electronics and connected car portfolio, which is well-positioned to capitalize on the emerging era of the connected vehicle."

Visteon expects the ultimate tax exposure, after consideration of the company's tax attributes, to range between 10 percent and 14 percent as a function of final resolution of sovereign tax issues. The company said that the majority of proceeds have been hedged against currency movement.

Further, Visteon said it will present an expanded portfolio of Cloud-based products and services, as well as the SmartCore cockpit domain controller, at the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas on January 6 to 9, 2015.

VC is trading at $100.84, up $5.18 or 5.42 percent on a volume of 549,887 shares.