Clarios to acquire Paragon's battery unit

Investment aligns company's focus on low-voltage vehicle architecture and systems

HANOVER, Germany, Aug. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarios, the global leader in manufacturing and recycling advanced, low-voltage networks and batteries, will purchase Paragon GmbH & Co. KGaA's power business that produces batteries and battery management systems for the automobile industry. Clarios is the parent company of VARTA® Automotive, a leading transportation battery brand in Europe.

"The low-voltage network is critical to the new user experiences, data collection methods and power system transformation underway in vehicles," said Clarios CEO Mark Wallace. "Paragon's team has the skills, culture and commitment to add new capabilities that will accelerate our partnership with key OE customers, especially around advanced Li-Ion programs."

Paragon's engineering team's expertise and leadership with projects with global OE customers complements the Clarios team's current low-voltage and li-ion programs. The acquisition significantly increases Clarios' engineering team that is dedicated to the development of new low-voltage architectures at the company.

"Paragon's team and capabilities strengthen our resources in Europe and globally as we develop a systems-based approach to low voltage networks," said Federico Morales Zimmermann, vice president and GM, Global Customers, Products and Engineering at Clarios. "I'm confident our new colleagues will help us accelerate the electrification and digitalization of new vehicles, to create new user experiences, exploit and capture data, and to power new systems-based architectures."

Clarios will share additional information on how this acquisition fits with a long-term vision for low-voltage vehicle architecture during the IAA Mobility Conference in Munich, Germany, in September.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

ABOUT CLARIOS:
Clarios is the world leader in advanced, low-voltage architecture and batteries that power one in three vehicles globally. The company's 16,000 employees in over 100 countries, are focused on partnering with Aftermarket and OEM customers to deliver the systems, solutions and services to support the energy transition underway with vehicles. Clarios is committed sustainability and operational excellence and currently recovers, recycles and reuses up to 99% of its battery materials. The company is a subsidiary of Brookfield Business Partners.

ABOUT PARAGAON:
Paragon GmbH & Co. KGaA (ISIN DE0005558696), which is listed on the Regulated Market (Prime Standard) of Deutsche Börse AG in Frankfurt a.M., develops, produces and sells pioneering solutions in the fields of automotive electronics, body kinematics and electromobility. In addition to its headquarters in Delbrück (North Rhine-Westphalia), paragon GmbH & Co. KGaA and its subsidiaries have locations in Suhl (Thuringia), Landsberg am Lech and Nuremberg (Bavaria), St. Georgen (Baden-Württemberg), Limbach (Saarland) as well as in Kunshan (China), Bengaluru (India) and Oroslavje (Croatia).

SOURCE Clarios