Turkish armored-vehicle maker Otokar is moving from partner to owner in Romania, lining up a majority takeover of its long-time collaborator Automecanica. The deal would pull a key Eastern European production hub directly under Otokar’s control, tightening its grip on a market that is spending heavily on new military hardware.
For Romania, the planned acquisition folds a historic local plant into a bigger regional player just as defense budgets and NATO expectations are climbing. For Otokar, it is a bet that building close to customers, rather than shipping from Turkey, is the fastest way to stay in the game.
The deal that turns a partnership into ownership
The Turkish company has already put its cards on the table, signing a memorandum of understanding to acquire a majority stake in Automecanica and effectively convert their existing partnership into full control. Earlier reporting notes that 96.77% of Automecanica is on the table, a level that would leave Otokar firmly in the driver’s seat. The move follows a period in which Military personnel were already kicking the tires of armored vehicles made by Turkish manufacturer Otokar in Romania, underscoring how embedded the brand has become.
Money is a big part of the story. One report puts the expected price tag at around EUR 85 million as The Turkish company Otokar consolidates its presence in Romania and takes over a plant that was nationalized under communism and privatized in 1997. Another breakdown of the memorandum says the transaction is structured around an enterprise value of EUR 87.8 m, a figure that includes net debt and working capital. Either way, Otokar is paying real money to lock in a production base that already has the right permits and infrastructure in place.
Why Automecanica’s Romanian footprint matters
Automecanica is not just any workshop on the map, it is the main company operating the Medias industrial platform in central Romania. The plant carries the facilities and approvals that Otokar needs for its planned industrial footprint in the country, which is why Automecanica currently holds the facilities and necessary approvals in Romania that are intended to support Otokar’s planned industrial activities. For a company that wants to deliver quickly into NATO markets, buying into an existing ecosystem beats starting from scratch.
The Romanian angle is also crowded with other big names. German automotive and arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has already taken a majority share in a Romanian vehicle maker in Medias, showing how attractive this industrial cluster has become. Earlier coverage of the same deal highlights that the German group Rheinmetall moved on a Romanian asset in Medias as part of its own expansion, underlining that Otokar is stepping into a neighborhood where competition and cooperation with European primes are both on the table.
From joint venture to regional strategy
The takeover is not coming out of nowhere. Otokar and Automecanica S.A already formed a joint venture for the Romanian Cobra II, a program that also involved Rheinmetall Auto and was pitched as a way to supply NATO’s eastern flank with locally produced armored vehicles. That cooperation gave Otokar a front row seat to Automecanica’s capabilities and to the expectations of Romanian defense planners, making a full acquisition a logical next step once the vehicles started rolling off the line.
Inside Turkey, the move fits a broader shift in how Otokar thinks about exports. In an interview shared earlier this month, Otokar CEO Aykut Özüner described a strategic pivot away from a simple “produce in Turkey, sell abroad” model toward deeper local integration in key markets. From a financial perspective, that same discussion pointed to international sales of TRY 18.9bn and a growing focus on the European Union defense market, which makes a Romanian base look less like a side project and more like a cornerstone.
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