ZF has increased its shares to become the majority shareholder with 51 per cent in the Rane TRW Steering Systems joint venture with the Rane Group. Till date, both partners held equal shares in the company, which employs around 3400 people. In the future, the joint venture will operate on the market under the name ZF Rane Automotive India. The renaming is reflective of the enhanced cooperation between the partners.
“India is a very important market for ZF, and we want to grow sustainably here,” says Dr. Holger Klein, Member of the Board of Management (BOM), ZF Group. “By acquiring a majority stake from our long-standing partner Rane, we aim to further expand both our passenger car and commercial vehicle business for our customers in the India region.”
This JV will further enhance the abilities of the partners to offer newer technologies, expedite new product introductions, and localization with Rane Group as a strategic partner to leverage competence, in line with ZF’s Refresh India strategy.
Commenting on the enhanced cooperation, Harish Lakshman, Vice Chairman, Rane Group & Managing Director, Rane TRW Steering Systems, said: “Our relationship with ZF has gone from strength-to-strength over the past 35 years and the transfer of 1% to ZF is a major step in taking the relationship to the next level. We look forward to bring superior technology matching the customer requirements.”
Suresh KV, President, ZF India, stated: “The complementary nature of the partners has been the hallmark of this JV which has resulted in the organization performing consistently over the years. Supporting the Indian customer base with ZF engineering and technology along with the customer connect and operations excellence of Rane will continue to be the goal of this JV in future.”
The JV was founded in 1987 by Rane and TRW to produce steering systems for commercial vehicles. In 1997, the company added occupant protection systems for passenger cars. With the acquisition of TRW in 2015, ZF Group became a co-owner of the company, which now produces steering gears, airbags and seat belt systems at five locations in India. Most recently, the two partners opened the new occupant protection systems plant in Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), Tamil Nadu, in 2019.