TRW Automotive to move HQ to Michigan from Cleveland

LIVONIA, Mich., November 20, 2002, Dan Hart writing for Bloomberg reports that TRW Automotive Inc. will move its headquarters to Michigan and close the office in Cleveland as the auto-parts maker prepares to be sold by Northrop Grumman Corp.

TRW won a 10-year business tax credit worth $4.5 million from Michigan to build a 120,000-square-foot office in Livonia for about $14 million, Governor John Engler said in a statement yesterday.

Northrop, after agreeing in July to buy TRW Inc. for $11/8 billion, is now selling the automotive-parts business to New York-based buyout firm Blackstone Group LP for $4.73 billion. TRW Automotive generates almost $1 billion annually in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and accounts for about 60 percent of TRW's sales.

TRW Automotive hasn't decided when construction will begin on the new office as it awaits shareholder votes on the $11.8 billion purchase of TRW by Northrop, said spokesman Manley Ford.

The automotive unit had some corporate tax and finance functions housed in Cleveland, Ford said. Northrop said yesterday that it will close TRW's corporate headquarters in Cleveland.

TRW Automotive currently has four buildings in Livonia, where about 900 engineers design and develop automotive chassis and brake components. The company has about 250,000 square feet of space.