VEHICLE-parts manufacturer Metair Investments plans to grow battery production fivefold through acquisitions within the next five years.The company wants to raise annual battery production to 50-million from about 10-million and plans to spend at least R2.5bn-R3bn on takeovers, MD Theo Loock said on Thursday.The war chest for deals could be higher than that, depending on shareholder support.Metair bought a majority stake in Turkish battery company Mutlu Akü for R2.9bn in late 2013 and has since raised its stake to 100%."It takes between 70 or 80 years to get to that number one brand position in a very specific market," Mr Loock said. "To do that with greenfields projects is very difficult."As countries start producing more vehicles, and have the requirement for more start-up technology, we hope those manufacturers will approach us because we think we’re more approachable in terms of sharing our technology than the world’s largest players," Mr Loock said.Metair was looking for small ...
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