Sila, the Group’s holding company, launches a plan to acquire Vimercati

A strategic move by an Italian automotive components group aimed at consolidating its business, expanding its technological expertise and broadening its market reach. The Turin-based holding company Brepafin, which controls the Sila Group, has drawn up a two-stage plan for the acquisition of the Vimercati Group’s operations in Pero. The merger of the two companies, which will be preceded by a period during which the business unit will be leased, will result in a player with revenues of over €220 million, around 400 employees in Italia and over 2,100 globally. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, and the transaction is expected to be finalised in the early months of next year.

“With this initiative,” emphasises Edoardo Pavesio, chairman of the Sila Group and one of the vice-chairmen of AMMA in Turin (Association of Mechatronics Companies) – ‘we want to highlight how the path towards consolidation among Italian automotive components manufacturers is not only possible but also represents an opportunity to strengthen competitiveness in the markets, at a very difficult time’. Once fully operational, “we expect significant synergies in terms of product and technology. As the Sila Group, we are set to complete our global presence, as the launch of the Vimercati plant in Mexico will enable us to operate directly in the US market without tariffs. Similarly, Sila’s presence in Asia opens up new opportunities in strategic markets within the automotive sector. This is the industrial foundation upon which we will develop a commercial growth plan with immediate benefits,” explains Pasquale Colicchia, CEO of the Sila Group.

Vimercati – which has been owned by the Indian company Viney Corporation Ltd since 2015 – will be renamed NextHMI. The company, founded in 1947, specialises in the design and manufacture of switches and switch assemblies primarily for the automotive sector, and employs a total of over 800 people across Italia and Romania, 140 of whom are based at its historic Lombardy headquarters on Via Monti in Pero, alongside an industrial site in Monterey, Mexico.

Brepafin is the holding company that brings together all the shareholders from the Brero and Pavesio families, who own the Sila Group, founded in 1943 in Orbassano and now a global player in the design and manufacture of gearshift control systems and flexible cables for the automotive industry. The Group operates not only in Italia but also in Poland, Brazil, India and China. “The histories of these two companies have run parallel to date, and both epitomise the tenacity and drive to grow and develop Italian products and technologies, which we then successfully export all over the world,” explains Brepafin’s chairman, Edoardo Pavesio, who – alongside members of the third generation – leads the Group founded by Edoardo Brero and subsequently managed by Oreste Brero.