ZF signs definitive agreement to acquire WABCO

Together, ZF and WABCO will form a global integrated mobility systems provider for commercial vehicles, creating added value for ZF's commercial vehicle customers. The combined company will have sales of approximately EUR 40 billion. WABCO is a supplier of braking control systems, technologies and services that improve safety, efficiency and connectivity of commercial vehicles including trucks, buses and trailers. Its products and services include integrated braking systems and stability control, air suspension systems, transmission automation controls, as well as aerodynamics, telematics, and fleet management solutions. WABCO generated EUR 3.3 billion in revenues in 2018 and has some 16’000 employees in 40 countries. "We believe that, together with WABCO, ZF can form the world's leading integrated systems provider for commercial vehicle technology, creating long-term value and security for its customers, employees and owners. For ZF the acquisition of a specialist and leader for commercial vehicle braking systems means adding a stable and growing business segment and enables our existing commercial vehicle division to expand its expertise in vehicle dynamics control," says Wolf-Henning Scheider, CEO of ZF, in a press release. The planned acquisition is part of ZF's Next Generation Mobility strategy and will expand the company's expertise to include commercial vehicle braking solutions for the first time. This plays a central role for the control of automated driving functions – including emergency braking manoeuvres of trucks and trailers. ZF expects that automated driving functions will primarily be implemented for commercial vehicles and in areas with low complexity and traffic (such as factory sites, airports, agriculture). The combination of both businesses is expected to further accelerate the development of new technologies to enable autonomous commercial vehicle functions, making ZF less dependent on the economic cycle of the passenger car industry.