NOVI, Mich.—Cooper Standard Holdings Inc. has been very busy in the Asia-Pacific region.
The parent company for Cooper Standard Automotive Inc. is forming Cooper Standard Inoac Pte. Ltd.—a joint venture with Inoac Corp. of Japan—to expand the reach of its fluid transfer systems products in the Asia-Pacific automotive market.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. Cooper Standard will own 51 percent and Inoac the remaining 49 percent, Cooper Standard said.
Cooper Standard also celebrated the grand opening of its new Asia-Pacific Technical Center in Shanghai. It is in the process of relocating employees from its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Kunshan, China, to the new Shanghai facility. Kunshan is about 35 miles west of Shanghai.
“As we looked at our business over the last 18 months, we clearly identified we were very strong in North America, very strong in Europe and had historically under-invested in Asia,” said Keith Stephenson, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cooper Standard. “This is part of us accelerating our growth in Asia.”
All of this activity comes on the heels of another strong financial quarter for Cooper Standard.
The firm reported a 9.3-percent increase in sales for the second quarter to $857.6 million.
Net income decreased from $27.4 million to $13.2 million, but that included a loss of $30.3 million from a debt repurchase the firm completed in April, said Allen Campbell, executive vice president and chief financial officer, during an Aug. 1 conference call.
For the half-year, sales rose to about $1.7 billion from about $1.53 billion in 2013. Net income dropped from $48.1 million in 2013 to $32.9 million.
Cooper Standard said during the conference call that it has completed the sale of its emissions product line to Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp.
HVCC said in a statement it paid $46 million for the product line.
“We looked at the thermal and emissions business as a very attractive product category, but not our product category,” Stephenson said.
“We've got our four core product lines that we've carefully defined, and as we looked at this business, we simply realized this is not our space. We think we found a great home for those products and our people.”