On December 19, 2018, CCI approved the acquisition of Sona BLW Precision Forgings Limited (‘Sona India’) by BCP Topco VI Pte. Limited (‘BCP Topco’) and Singapore VII Topco III Pte. Limited (‘Singapore Topco’) (collectively referred to as ‘Parties’). [1]

This transaction consisted of series of inter-connected steps:

i.       carving out Sona Holdings B.V. (‘Sona Netherlands’) from Sona India to the extent that Sona Autocomp Holding Private Limited (‘SAHPL’) would exercise direct control over it, as opposed to the indirect control that it exercised through Sona India;

ii.      acquisition of up to 66.28% share capital on a fully diluted basis in Sona India by BCP Topco, which may assign its rights and obligations in connection with this transaction to Singapore Topco; and

iii.     acquisition of 100% shares of the Comstar Entities[2] by Sona India.

CCI noted that Sona India and Comstar Entities were engaged in the auto component industry. In its competition assessment, CCI observed that there was no horizontal overlap or vertical relationship between the activities of the parties. Therefore, CCI approved the combination as it was unlikely to have any AAEC in India.

[1] Combination Registration No. C-2018/11/611 [2] Including Comstar Automotive Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Comstar Automotive Hong Kong Limited (wholly owned subsidiaries of Singapore Topco)