BRUSSELS, Belgium – Wabco Holdings announced that it will be taking full ownership of the Meritor Wabco joint venture.

Wabco has signed an agreement to purchase Meritor’s stake in the joint venture business for $250 million. The transaction is expected to close on October 1, 2017 and immediately prior to closing, Meritor will receive a final closing partnership distribution.

Meritor Wabco currently employs 200 people and is headquartered in Troy, Michigan.

With this agreement, Wabco will take over the former joint venture’s application engineering and supply chain operations, including the distribution center and customer service hub in Hebron, Kentucky.

“The acquisition of the remaining stake in Meritor Wabco furthers our commitment to expand our presence in North America,” said Jacques Esculier, Wabco chairman and CEO. “By unifying our North America team, Wabco can unlock further value for our customers, including offering them seamless access to Wabco’s powerful technology and services portfolio, backed by the flexibility and efficiency of an integrated global supply chain.”

With this consolidation, Wabco said it will further strengthen its relationships with commercial vehicle manufacturers and fleets through more simplified and direct channels.

“We strive to continually improve Wabco’s capability to serve commercial vehicle makers and fleets in North America, enabling delivery of goods and transportation of people as safely and efficiently as ever,” said Jon Morrison, Wabco president, Americas. “By combining our organization under one brand and leadership structure, we can leverage and deploy, here in North America, the full breadth of Wabco’s leading technology portfolio to serve customers directly – as we do in the rest of the world.”

Following closure of the buyout, Wabco has agreed for Meritor to continue to be its exclusive distributor for a certain range of Wabco’s aftermarket products in the U.S. and Canada, and its non-exclusive distributor in Mexico.