Meritor Automotive has finalized its joint venture with ZF, forming ZF Meritor LLC. The joint venture, previously announced on June 9, has received customary regulatory approvals and will begin operations immediately.

Meritor transferred to the new company the assets of its heavy transmission business, and its 60% interest in Meritor Clutch Co., while ZF contributed leading-edge transmission technology and made a cash payment to Meritor. Meritor and ZF each own 50% of the joint venture.
The new company, based at the former Meritor transmission manufacturing plant in Laurinburg, N.C., will produce technologically advanced medium- and heavy-duty transmission components and systems for original equipment manufacturers and the aftermarket, in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Richard Martello will serve as president of ZF Meritor LLC. Martello has more than 25 years of management experience with Meritor and most recently served as general manager of Meritor's Transmission, Clutch and Driveline business.
"The combination of ZF's technical expertise, along with Meritor's marketing and distribution know-how, will provide the industry with a broader scope of state-of-the-art products and services while it supports our business objective to be the best single-source supplier of commercial transmissions in North America," Martello says.
For more information, visit the Meritor web site at http://www.meritorauto.com, or the ZF web site at http://www.zf-group.de