Montupet set for expansion as company is sold for £629m

Montupet saw turnover dropping slightly to £85m for the year ending December 2015, with pre-tax profits dropping from £15.6m to £13.7m

By Margaret Canning

Belfast car parts manufacturer Montupet could be in line for expansion after its French parent company was taken over.

The firm, which employs 600 people in Dunmurry, has been taken over by family-run Canadian firm Linamar in what it called a "friendly" acquisition.

It's understood the deal was worth around €800m (£629m).

And a spokeswoman for Montupet in Dunmurry said: "The integration into the Linamar Group will see additional opportunities to increase the plant loading for the Belfast plant."

She said the addition of Montupet had added proficiency in complex aluminum light casting to Linamar's capabilities.

Montupet has operated in Northern Ireland since 1989 - using the former home of car maker Delorean.

The firm manufactures cast aluminium cylinder heads for petrol diesel engines used for car makers Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Volvo, Fiat and Mazda.

Montupet's Dunmurry plant sends its products to engine plants in the UK, France, Turkey, Thailand, Romania, Hungary, South Africa and China.

That's set to expand next year, the company said, to include additional engine plants in Poland and Germany.

Last year the company announced a new £140m contract for the Dunmurry plant.

Linamar, which is based in Guelph in Ontario, is now made up of 37 manufacturing plants around the world, employing 23,000 people in total. The group has turnover of CAN$5.2m (£2.9bn).

The first three months of 2016 have seen quieter corporate activity in Northern Ireland, compared to the year before.

There were 36 transactions involving firms in the province from January to March, down from 42 at the same time in 2015.

The sale of Homebase to Australian retailer Wesfarmers inflated the value of mergers and acquisitions in the province to more than £392m.

The DIY chain's holding company had been registered in Northern Ireland.