The new ArvinMeritor partnership between Arvin Industries and Meritor is expected to be completed by July 31 this year.
At a recent press briefing at Meritor's Troy, MI., headquarters, Meritor Heavy Vehicle Systems president Prakash Mulchandani said the new company will be 65.8% owned by Meritor and 34.2% owned by Arvin. However, the resulting $7.6-billion company is a "merger of equals," he said.
Earlier this month, the first meetings between 60 of the top managers from both partners were held in Chicago to seek out the synergies between the merger partners, he said. In all, there will be 19 multi-functional teams charged with managing vaious facets of the merger.
According to Mulchandani, the two partners have an exceptionally good fit, with Meritor bringing the heavy vehicle business in addition to its light and passenger-car sales to complement Arvins largely light vehicle product range. Additionally, in light vehicles, Arvin's main customers are Ford and GM, where Meritor's are Volkswagen and DaimlerChrysler, he said.
Mulchandani added that the heavy vehicle products will keep the Meritor branding that the comany has striven so hard to establish after its breakaway from Rockwell. However, light and pass-car branding will change to reflect the ArvinMeritor corporate name.