New Delhi: Havell's India has acquired SLI Sylvania's lighting business for $300 million (about Rs1,350 crore). This makes it the biggest overseas takeover by an Indian electrical equipment manufacturer till date.

The acquisition has been done through Havell's Dutch subsidiary, Havell's Netherlands BV. The combined revenues of the two companies are expected to be around $1 billion.

The all-cash deal would be funded through a mix of debt and internal accruals. The subsidiary would raise a debt of $265 million from Barclays Bank to fund the deal. The transaction is expected to be completed in April-May, with Havell's retaining SLI Sylvania's management team after the acquisition.

Post acquisition Sylvania would operate as Havell's Sylvania, a subsidiary of Havell's, and the company would continue marketing its popular brands under the same name.

Sylvania sells professional and consumer lighting brands such as Sylvania Concord Marlin, Lumiance, Claude, Zenith and Linolite-Sylvania.

SLI Sylvania, which is headquartered in Frankfurt, is a leading global designer and provider of lighting systems for lamps and fixtures. As of the year ending Dec 31, 2006, SLI Sylvania generated revenues of $594 millon, and a normalised EBIDTA of $41.2 milion.

SLI Sylvania operates in Europe, Latin America and Africa through 10 manufacturing facilities. The company would not be able to sell in the overseas markets of Mexico, the US, Australia and New Zealand, where the business is owned by Osram.

Sylvania Osram had earlier sold its lighting business to a consortium of three private equity funds comprising Subros, JP Morgan and DDG Capital and Havell's has acquired the business from the consortium.

Currently, Havell's has eight manufacturing facilities in India and has a limited presence in Europe through its subsidiary, while Sylvania is among the top five lighting companies in Europe, including Germany and the UK.