Chennai: The city-based commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland Limited has signed a share purchase Agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the paid-up capital of Defiance Testing and Engineering Services, Inc (DTE), based near Detroit, Michigan in the US.

The transaction value is $17 million.

A profit making company, DTE is engaged in providing independent testing services for leading auto original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and their tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers. Its capabilities are in the areas of laboratory-based testing and data acquisition, simulation durability testing, NVH testing, road load data acquisition, safety testing and facilities management and test laboratory consulting.

DTE is currently owned by GenTek Inc, USA, a publicly traded company on the US electronic exchange, the Nasdaq. The company is primarily engaged in the manufacture of industrial components including precision-engineered components for value-train systems and performance chemicals.

The Chennai company is already engaged in providing design and engineering services to the automobile industry and also to its customers in the industrial machines and power generation sectors through its Ashley Design and Engineering Services Division (ADES).

The acquisition of the DTE''s testing facilities located near Detroit, will help ADES to enlarge the existing customer base and serve the leading auto makers in the US, and provide the ability to offer greater integrated value added service propositions from engineering design and development, to testing.

The acquisition is subject to completion of the agreed closing conditions and further corporate and statutory approvals from both GenTek and Ashok Leyland. The closing is expected to be completed by the end of May 2007.