Bulgarian car battery maker Monbat [BUL:5MB] said on Friday that its board has approved the acquisition of a 66.66% stake in Italian engineering company Science Technology & Consulting (STC) for an undisclosed price, reports SeeNews,

The acquisition will expand Monbat Economic Group’s used batteries processing portfolio in Western Europe and is part of the group’s strategy for vertical integration and geographical diversification, Monbat said in a bourse filing.

The acquisition will allow Monbat to introduce new services, such as electrolyte recovery, heavy and light plastics separation and recycling, hydrometallurgical conversion of lead paste in lead oxide, ultrapure lead oxide production, and ultrapure lead oxide reduction at low temperatures, used in new battery production and many other technologies owned by the company.