Bharat Forge, India's largest exporter of vehicle components, has bought German forging company Carl Dan Peddinghhaus (CDP) in a deal with an estimated value of between £15m and £22m.

The acquisition of CDP, which produces chassis parts for car manu-facturers such as Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler, Audi, Volvo and BMW, gives Bharat Forge a foothold in the European passenger car parts market. The company, which makes front axles for trucks, along with crankshafts for China's top two commercial vehicle manufacturers, will fund the deal internally and make it the world's second largest forging organisation. Approximately 60 per cent of CDP's customers are clients of Bharat Forge.

The deal doubles Bharat Forge's throughput capacity and increases exports to 75 per cent of sales. The firm is unlikely to relocate CDP's design team from its Dusseldorf base in Germany, but may move manufacturing to India. The purchase is Bharat Forge's second in Europe, it bought a UK forging company two years ago and switched its production to India.

“The CDP acquisition reinforces our long-term growth strategy of expanding both organically and inorganically,” says Baba Kalyani, chairman and managing director.

“This will help us strengthen and expand our business in Europe through the addition of new customers, and build new business with existing customers, especially in the passenger car segment where CDP has a large presence.

n Tata Motors, whose Indica is the base car for the new CityRover, is set to purchase the commercial vehicles unit of South Korea's Daewoo.