FORD MOTOR Co, the No. 2 US automaker, said yesterday that it would sell its last remaining auto parts company to a joint venture between French supplier Valeo SA and a former Detroit Pistons basketball player.
The sale of Ford’s Plymouth Township, Michigan-based climate control business fulfils the goal of its Automotive Components Holdings, a unit created in 2005 to manage plants that Ford acquired from its largest parts supplier, Visteon Corp. Ford created ACH in October 2005 with 17 plants to prevent parts disruptions while Visteon downsized its operations. Ford intended to sell, close or merge those operations over time.
“Few companies take the longer-term comprehensive approach we took with the restructuring of ACH,” said Mark Fields, Fords president of Americas. The company did not disclose the sale price.
Earlier this year, Ford sold an interiors parts business to French supplier Faurecia and a lighting business to an affiliate of auto parts maker Flex-N-Gate.
The climate control business will be sold to Detroit Thermal Systems LLC, a joint venture between Valeo and V. Johnson Enterprises.
