Johnson Controls to Acquire Ikeda

TOKYO — Johnson Controls Inc., the world’s second-largest maker of vehicle seats and interiors, on Sunday said it will buy Japanese rival Ikeda Bussan Co., a unit of Nissan Motor Co., for $185 million in cash and debt to expand in Japan.

Johnson, which first entered the Japanese market in 1973, is taking the opportunity as Japan’s auto makers and auto-parts companies are selling stakes to foreign rivals amid a global consolidation and reorganization. For Nissan, the sale is part of a reorganization plan to help Japan’s No. 3 auto maker reduce debt and return to profit.

On the New York Stock Exchange, shares in Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls fell 75 cents to close at $51.81 on Friday.

Johnson Controls expects the purchase to be “slightly accretive” to fiscal 2001 earnings. It posted a net income of $420 million on sales of $16 billion in the year ended September 1999.

Created in 1948, Ikeda is the primary supplier of seating to the Nissan group. Johnson and Ikeda operate two joint ventures that supply Nissan seats in the U.S. and Britain.