EU Commission Extends Thule/Pewag Investigation Period

The EU Commission has decided to extend its investigation into Thule’s, a world leader in Sports Utility Transportation, acquisition of Pewag Schneeketten GmbH which was made public on 31 March this year. “The European Commission needs more time to investigate into the consequences for customers and consumers in markets such as Italy, Austria and France”, comments Anders Pettersson, CEO and President of Thule AB. “The complexity of the market conditions makes this further investigation necessary and we support this step. We estimate that the final decision will be made in approximately four months”, concludes Anders Pettersson.

The Thule Group acquired Italian snow chain producer König (net sales in 2005 of 308 million Swedish Krone) in 2004, as part of its strategy of growing the company in ”adjacent product categories.” Thule’s snow chain business has a focus on passenger car chains. The Thule focused its attention on Austrian company, Pewag Schneeketten GmbH, which distributes various snow chain products (net sales 2005: 48 million euros).

In its first half 2006 results Thule reported 1.966 billion Swedish Krone of sales, a 29.3 per cent increase on the previous year. EBITDA rose an incredible 42 per cent to 274 million krone. Thule has obviously been on something of a corporate shopping spree, announcing acquisitions of Pewag, Brink, Valley, SportRack Accessories and Anhaenger-center.com in the first half-year