Sibur Still Interested in All of Amtel-Vredestein

Speaking in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, Sibur Russian-Tyres director Vadim Gurinov spoke of the company’s strategic decision to let the planned 2008 merger with Amtel-Vredestein founder: “If we completed then, we would have entered into a crisis with a set of these toxic assets and we would have to run these plants…Fortunately the moment came when we understood the scale of the looming crisis.”

That said, Gurinov clearly reaffirmed the company’s interest in the company’s assets and the growth potential of the sector: “There are prospects for this segment, but we don’t have either the power or time to build new production from scratch.” The only remaining option is therefore growth through acquisition, so within this context Kommersant asked which Amtel-Vredestein assets Sibur is interested in: “All are interesting,” was the definite reply. However when questioned about the specifics of getting involved with the problematic AV-TO retail network, Gurinov conceded that this part of the business is not what it was, describing it as “almost halve the number of shops” it used to be.

Russian tyremaker reports sales of 27.5 billion rubles, 10.2 million tyres in  2008

According to Gurinov, Sibur Russian-Tyres’ 2008 revenue stood at 27.5 billion rubles (£539 million; 626 million euros). EBITDA fell to 1.3 billion rubles (£25.5 million; 29.6 million euros) from 2.5 billion in 2007. The company sold 10.2 million tyres (6.3 million for cars and 3.6 million for trucks) in 2008. This compares to 12.4 million tyres in 2007 (7.5 million passenger and light-truck tyres, 4.3 million commercial tyres and 0.6 million “other tyres” (moto, aviation, etc). According to data Tyres & Accessories has seen Sibur held just over 40 per cent truck market share in 2008. Sibur Russian-Tyres representatives accept that 2009 has so far been a very difficult year, however their analysis is that the worst is over and the company bottomed out – so to speak – in March. “I will simply say that in general…we have no problems, since March we have positive cash flow,” Gurinov explained. And positive cash flow means pre-planned investment plans are once again realistic.

The company is reportedly working on two particularly projects at the moment – the $250 million construction of an all-steel radial tyre production plant in Yaroslavl and polyester cords factory “Sibur-Volga,” According to the Kommersant article, the latter is covered by $100 million of Hermes financing. This project is said to be in its final stage and is expected to start production between 2010 and 2011. It had originally been scheduled to open between the end of 2009 and the beginning 2010.