Hella is planning a sale of its driver-assistance software unit, said Bloomberg. It is working with advisers to gauge interest in the business, fetching several hundred million Euros.
The unit may attract interest from suppliers, automakers investing in ADAS. No final decisions have been made, and there is no certainty the deliberations would lead to a transaction.
The company’s Hella Aglaia Mobile Vision unit makes embedded software systems used for assisted driving functions. Its image-processing programs can detect oncoming vehicles, recognize traffic signs as well as lane markers and sense other objects around a car.
Unlike products from larger competitors like Mobileye, which sell integrated solutions with hardware and software packaged together, Aglaia’s software is designed to be paired with chips, cameras and sensors made by other vendors.
Hella’s potential divestment comes as suppliers navigate a slumping market due to the coronavirus. The company said on July 28 it will cut 900 jobs at its headquarters by the end of 2023 amid a “hard market decline” during the pandemic.
The supplier targets between €5.6 billion euros and €6.1 billion in sales in the current financial year.