Alpha and HarbourVest team up on car parts deal

Franco-German private equity house Alpha Group and HarbourVest Partners of the US are buying Belgian car part maker VCST Industrial Products from Fox Paine, the San Francisco-based private equity firm, according to Belgian press reports. 
 
No financial details of the deal were announced, and the firms involved could not be reached for comment.
 
VCST, which was formerly known as Volvo Cars Sint Truiden, makes components for personal and commercial vehicles. It employs 1,000 people in six production facilities in Belgium, Germany, Spain and the US, and last year had an operating profit of €18.46 million ($21.5 million).
 
Fox Paine bought an 83 percent stake in the company in October 2004. The remaining equity was held by Navas Investments, a firm controlled by former company official Jeroen van den Nieuwenhuyzen, and by the company’s management.
 
Founded in 1985, Alpha Group has advised funds worth €1 billion and has invested in companies in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.
 
The firm is in the process of launching a new €750 million fund, according to press reports.

Alpha has previous investments in the automotive industry, having backed the management buy-out of German car parts maker Görtz & Schiele in December 2004.

Last month also saw private equity activity in the sector when global mid-market private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners sold Italian car parts maker FL Selenia to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in a deal worth more than €835 million.