Atlas Copco North America LLC and Atlas Copco Asia Pacific Pty Ltd have signed an agreement to acquire all entities of self-pierce riveting specialist Henrob, which has main production facilities in the US and UK

Announcing the acquisition on 13th August, Atlas Copco said it offers the group an opportunity to expand in a fast-growing market segment, with state of the art technology. Henrob is a pioneer and market leader in self-pierce riveting. The privately owned company had revenues of US$162 million (123 million euros) in the 12 months ending June 2014 and has about 400 employees. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and should close during the third quarter 2014.

Atlas Copco says the self-pierce riveting segment is expanding fast due to the growing use of lightweight materials in the automotive and other industries, a trend driven by increasingly stringent emission standards. Automakers are working hard to improve fuel economy, and weight reduction using aluminium is an effective measure in meeting these requirements.

"Henrob is a strategic fit in our portfolio of adjacent fastening technologies for the automotive industry," said Mats Rahmstr?m, president of Atlas Copco’s industrial technique business area.

"It is a logical addition to our automotive body shop business. Now we can serve customers with three assembly technologies – tightening, adhesives and self-pierce riveting."

Henrob already supplies many of the leading automotive manufacturers in Europe and North America but Atlas Copco believes its global footprint will open up possibilities to serve customers in more markets. Henrob will become a business line within the MVI Tools and Assembly Systems division in the industrial technique business area. The Henrob brand will be retained. The industrial technique business area provides industrial power tools, assembly systems, quality assurance products, software and service through a global network, delivering productivity solutions to the automotive and aerospace industries, industrial manufacturing and maintenance, and in-vehicle service. Principal product development and manufacturing units are located in Sweden, France and Japan.

Based in Stockholm, Atlas Copco was founded in 1873 and now has a global reach spanning more than 180 countries. It had 2013 revenues of approximately 9.7 billion euros and has more than 40,000 employees.