French car parts group Faurecia to sell SAS cockpit unit to Motherson

PARIS (Reuters) -French car parts maker Faurecia has agreed to sell its SAS Cockpit Modules arm to automotive supplier Motherson Group, in a transaction based on an enterprise value of 540 million euros ($577.5 million), Faurecia said on Sunday.

Faurecia last year took over German rival Hella to form a new European car parts company called FORVIA, and Faurecia chief Patrick Koller said the sale of the SAS business would help FORVIA to focus better on its core activities.

"I am convinced that this transaction would unlock additional value for SAS," Koller said in a statement.

"This would also allow FORVIA to focus on its core business activities developing breakthrough technologies and would fulfil our non-strategic asset divestment programme of 1 billion euros by end-2023," he added.

($1 = 0.9351 euros)

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Goodman and David Holmes)