Taking over TRW Automotive’s European and North American L&S business (2015)

What ¥49.3 billion bought was time and factories

The 2015 decision extended into Europe and North America the second pillar planted in 2007. What it bought was five plants in Germany, the Czech Republic, Canada and the United States, some 2,170 people, and the trading relationships with Western automakers; against consideration of $407.6M (¥49bn), goodwill of $109.4M (¥13bn) was recognized. Combine industrial equipment, which rises and falls on the capital-spending cycle, with a different wave — automobile production volumes — and the swing in consolidated results should narrow. On the revenue line, that reading showed up in the figures from the first year.

What did not show up was the margin. The consolidated operating margin in the first year after the transfer was 9.6%, further from the 20%-plus target set in 2014 rather than closer to it. What THK worked on over the following decade was the restructuring of the North American transport-equipment business, and in the year to December 2025 it booked a net loss of ¥69.9 billion. The European and North American production network bought for $407.6M (¥49bn) passes, together with TRA Holdings, to a fund of Advantage Partners on 1 June 2026.