Switzerland / USA - Wabco Holdings Inc of Bern, Switzerland, has announced it is to sell its commercial vehicle steering systems subsidiary, RH Sheppard Co Inc (Sheppard) to fellow CV brake specialist, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC (Bendix) for USD149.5m. (Bendix is an indirect subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse AG of Munich, Germany, a leading global supplier of braking systems and other safety-critical rail and commercial vehicle systems).

Wabco, which only acquired Sheppard in 2017, is divesting the steering systems specialist division as a result of the review by the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice review of the proposed purchase of Wabco by ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF) of Friedrichshafen, Germany; the acquisition of Wabco by ZF is expected to be concluded in the first half of 2020.

It is worth noting that previously, when ZF acquired TRW, ZF was also required to sell off its share in the joint CV steering systems business with Bosch. This was due to that TRW had its own global steering systems business, which has now been incorporated into the ZF Group.