The automotive supplier from Velbert has developed the prototype of the future car key. It can be used to control important functions in the car.
(Photo: PR)
Frankfurt, Stuttgart According to financial sources, the manufacturer of wireless car keys, Huf, is for sale. The family owners have hired investment bank Rothschild to find a buyer, according to several people familiar with the transaction. With an operating result (Ebitda) of more than 100 million euros, Huf could be valued at 500 to 600 million euros. A company spokeswoman said she was not aware of the owners’ intention to sell.
Rothschild declined to comment. Other automotive suppliers from both Germany and Asia are considered potential buyers.
According to industry experts, Huf is in the same situation as many German automotive suppliers: Long spoiled by success, Huf got bogged down with the expansion and slipped into restructuring. Now a new majority owner is being sought in a market phase in which the entire industry is in upheaval and in which many investors are avoiding cars – even when it comes to parts of the company that have nothing to do with the combustion engine.
The supplier ZF, for example, is currently finding out how difficult a sale is in this environment. According to financial circles, its planned sale of axle contract manufacturing has got stuck and its airbag division, which is also for sale, has so far aroused little interest.
The Huf example shows the high level of tension and progressive consolidation in the supplier industry, said a car manager. “Declining sales figures, extremely increased costs and massive price pressure from the car companies are a fire accelerator for the progressive deindustrialization in Germany and the gradual disappearance of supplier companies.”
Huf: Liabilities of 400 million euros
In December, Huf extended the maturity of its €400 million debt by three years in a refinance deal and promised the lenders to initiate a sale. Huf is in a similar situation to the car supplier Eberspächer, which put its exhaust division up for sale under pressure from the banks. “Actually, the Huf owners had planned to sell long before that, but postponed the project because of the chip crisis,” said a person familiar with the process.
The Huf Group is one of the leading providers of vehicle access and authorization systems. Founded in 1908 by Ernst Hülsbeck and August Fürst in Velbert, Huf initially manufactured furniture locks, and in 1920 the company then delivered the first car door lock to Mercedes. An important innovation was also associated with this manufacturer when Huf introduced the first remote control key with infrared technology 30 years ago. Huf now also offers phone-as-a-key technology, in which the smartphone functions as a door opener.
However, the company, which still belongs to the two families of the founders, has gone through severe cuts in the past four years. The decline in global auto production also hit Huf. Sales fell from just under 1.5 to one billion euros in 2022 and thus to the level of twelve years ago. The workforce was reduced by a quarter to 7,300 employees, parts of the company were sold and production was relocated to cheaper countries abroad. Management has been largely replaced.
Family no longer in operational management
Founder’s grandson and senior boss Ulrich Hülsbeck, 76, moved to the top post on the advisory board in 2018 after more than 30 years at the top of the company. A non-family successor failed. Since 2019, Tom Graf has been leading the company in a double function as CEO and CFO. At the end of October last year, Florian Gräf, the last family member, left the operational management. At the beginning of the year, Graf handed over the post of Chief Financial Officer to Rainer Heupel, who most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at Thyssen-Krupp Mining.
The home of the company is the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Velbert near Essen. Arch-rival Kiekert, which has since been sold to Chinese investors, also comes from the area. Other competitors, at least in some areas, are Hella, Continental, Brose and Marquardt. Even if smartphones open more and more cars in the future, there will always be real keys, Ulrich Hülsbeck explained years ago in an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Be it as a status symbol or at least as a mechanical spare key.
More: ZF starts preparations for sale of airbag business