Magna Sells Car Interiors Business to Grupo Antolin for $525 Million

By Christopher Bjork

MADRID--Privately-owned Grupo Antolin SA said Thursday it is buying the automobile interiors operations of Magna International Inc. (MGA) for $525 million, in a deal that will see the Spanish car parts maker double in size.

Antolin, which is owned by the family with the same name, is taking over 36 manufacturing operations and roughly 12,000 employees located in Europe, North America and Asia. These operations had $2.4 billion in sales last year, Magna said in a separate release. The sale excludes Magna's seating business.

The purchase by the Spanish company comes as car sales are rising again in Europe following a prolonged economic slump.

The company said its 2014 revenues grew almost 7% to 2.23 billion euros ($2.37 billion).

Grupo Antolin, which began as a mechanics garage specializing in repairing agriculture machinery more than 60 years ago, already provides components for interiors of most of the world's largest car manufacturers from factories in 25 countries.

The purchase of the Magma assets will increase Antolin's number of employees to 27,000, the group said.

Write to Christopher Bjork at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires