|
It has been
announced that Pininfarina S.p.A and Webasto A.G. have
signed a Letter of Intent to change the relationship of
their fifty-fifty joint venture, OASys GmbH.
OASys GmbH is a
manufacturer of retractable hard and soft tops, with
operations in Stockdorf, Germany and Torino, Italy under the
industrial leadership of Webasto A.G. It was set up two
years ago and both companies regard the joint venture as
having been very successful.
The direction of
the discussions is for Webasto to focus its convertible
roofing business within OASys, while Pininfarina will
continue to engineer and manufacture vehicles, many of which
contain innovative roofing solutions.
In the short term, OASys will continue to be an exclusive
supplier to Pininfarina of engineering services for roof
solutions, while Pininfarina will continue to supply
manufactured roofs to OASys.
It is expected
that the transaction will involve the sale of Pininfarina’s
50% share in OASys to Webasto A.G., and it will be carried
out in early in 2005.
Franz-Josef
Kortüm, President & CEO of Webasto, and Andrea Pininfarina,
CEO of Pininfarina S.p.A., both spoke of the great success
of their joint venture and how they both looked forward to
continued success, as the convertible roofing business
continues to grow worldwide.
While the long
and rich history of Italian design house Pininfarina, needs
no explanation, Webasto was in fact founded, in Germany, in
1901 under the rather long name of "Eßlinger Draht und
Eisenwarenfabrik Wilhelm Baier, Eßlingen/Neckar".
The company had started out working on sheet metal and
making all kinds of products made by stamping, cutting and
bending metal. Three decades later and Wilhelm Baier
designed the first folding roof which could be opened and
closed easily according to weather conditions. |
