American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) recently announced a purchase agreement with FormTech Industries LLC. The agreement has American Axle exchanging its hub and spindle forging business for FormTech's differential gear, hypoid pinion and ring gear forging business.

In order to compensate for the difference in value, American Axle made a cash payment to FormTech. The parties also exchanged certain direct and indirect inventories, fixed assets and tooling related to the businesses.

"Through this asset purchase agreement, AAM has strategically acquired new forging process technology," says Richard Dauch, co-founder and chairman at AAM. "This strengthens our competitive position in the North American automotive forging market and enhances our ability to expand and diversify AAM's market penetration into transaxle components for passenger cars and crossover vehicles, as well as transfer case and all-wheel-drive components."