Cooper unlikely to meet financials deadline

A filing Cooper Tire & Rubber submitted with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 12 November does little to raise hopes that the company can provide Apollo Tyres’ creditors with financial information for the quarter to 30 September 2013 by tomorrow, as required in order for Cooper not to breach its merger agreement.

The SEC filing states that “following the announcement of the merger, the production employees at the company’s joint venture, Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Company Ltd., in Rongcheng, China went on strike, demanding termination of the merger. On August 17, 2013, those employees returned to work on a limited basis to manufacture only non-Cooper branded products, but have taken other disruptive actions, including denying access to certain representatives of the company and withholding certain business and financial information.”

Cooper Tire reports that as of 12 November 2013 it “has not been able to obtain this business and financial information from the joint-venture in a sufficient manner to complete the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013.” Therefore, the company is “currently evaluating its options for resolving this matter” and says that until it obtains satisfactory information from the joint-venture, it will not be able to file the Form 10-Q. Cooper says it “expects to file the Form 10-Q as soon as practicable after the information is obtained,” however no likely date for this was given.