SEOUL — Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and auto supplier Mahle have each submitted preliminary bids to buy a 70 percent stake in South Korea’s Hanon Systems worth an estimated 6.6 trillion won ($5.8 billion), the Korea Economic Daily reported.
The combined stake in Hanon, a maker of automotive air conditioning systems, has been put up for sale by local private equity firm Hahn & Co. and Hankook Tire & Technology Co., the newspaper said, citing unnamed investment banking sources.
Hanon Systems said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that nothing has been decided.
A spokesperson for Germany’s Mahle declined to comment. Representatives for Carlyle and Bain did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The newspaper said competitor Valeo had also submitted a preliminary bid, but the French supplier denied that it had.
Hanon Systems, the world’s second-largest supplier of auto thermal management systems, last year reported revenue of about $6.1 billion and operating profit of $278 million. The company ranked No. 42 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers based on revenue generated from automakers in 2019.
