ZF Friedrichshafen plans to acquire Bosch Rexroth’s large gearbox business, subject to approval by the antitrust authorities. The financial terms of the deal, which was signed on 13 May, was not disclosed.

Large gearboxes are used in wind turbines, as well as in industrial and mobile applications, such as tunnel-boring machines and mining excavators. Apart from the lead location in Witten, Germany, and the generator gear plant in Beijing, China, the unit’s service location in Lake Zurich, Ill., U.S.A., will also be transferred to ZF. All in all, the unit employs more than 1,200 associates.

“We are confident that our large gearbox business will benefit from ZF’s transmission expertise, and be able to make the best possible use of its growth opportunities in the new unit to be created at ZF,” says Karl Tragl, chairman of the board of management of Bosch Rexroth AG. In the future, he says, Bosch Rexroth will focus more intensively on its core business of industrial and mobile applications.

Commenting on the transaction, ZF’s CEO Stefan Sommer says: “In acquiring Bosch Rexroth’s large gearbox business, we are making an ideal addition to our industrial technology portfolio and opening up a new customer base.”

His colleague Wilhelm Rehm, who is the board member responsible for Corporate Materials Management and Industrial Technology, adds: “We are glad to welcome an experienced workforce with more than 30 years of expertise in manufacturing and developing wind turbine gearboxes, not to mention more than half a century of know-how in industrial gearboxes. In making Witten the headquarters of our new Industrial Drives business unit, we are recognizing this fact.”

The acquisition does not include Bosch Rexroth’s small gearboxes for mobile machinery. Part of the Mobile Applications business unit, these gearboxes are manufactured at the Bosch Rexroth locations in Nuremberg, Germany, Beijing, China and Bursa, Turkey.