The German Federal Cartel Office has decided that no further proceedings are necessary prior to granting approval for Michelin’s planned acquisition of Ihle Holding AG, parent company of tyre wholesaler Ihle Baden-Baden AG. In an official notification, the Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) reported that the acquisition is seen as posing no problem.
Chengshan Group Company Ltd. intends to acquire Cooper Tire & Rubber Company’s 65 per cent ownership in the two companies’ Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Company Ltd (CCT) joint-venture. Owing to the fact that the purchase offer is based on a pre-agreed “call option”, which itself is priced on the back of an agreed valuation of US$440 million, this means Chengshan has agreed to pay roughly US$286 million for the company. Cooper’s share price fell a dollar from around $29 to roughly $28 in response to the announcement.
After focusing heavily in recent years on expanding exports to Eastern Europe and Russia, RuLa and its subsidiary the Berliner Runderneuerungswerk (BRW, or Berlin Retreading Plant) is now concentrating primarily upon the German domestic market and specifically upon further developing its mould cure retreading and logistical capabilities. To achieve this, investments are being made in the company’s Königs Wusterhausen-Zernsdorf site south of Berlin. At the same time, company owner Detlev Biermann and his firm continue to develop their presence in Eastern Europe and very recently acquired a large, modern pre-cure retreading facility in Poland. As Tyres & Accessories learned when visiting the company, both of these investments should ‘weather proof’ RuLa, one of Germany’s largest retreaders, against further structural changes in the sector.
CPA, established in 1995, employs 120 people in 12 branches serving Hampshire, Sussex and Surrey. It has a delivery fleet of 60 vehicles and a turnover approaching £12 million. The acquisition was completed on Friday 26 September with CPA’s Managing Director Keith Anderson and other CPA leaders continuing with the autoparts distributor. CPA becomes part of the Eastern Alliance of HgCapital-owned businesses within The Parts Alliance, the others being Allparts Automotive and SC Motor Factors.
Tyre equipment manufacturer Mesnac has acquired Fushun Yikesi New Material, a Chinese producer of synthetic rubber and resin products, for the sum of US$60 million, according to reports. The acquisition gives the company entry into the rubber raw materials side of the industry.
Speculation suggested that Michelin quietly prepared for its acquisition of German tyre wholesaler Reifen Ihle Baden-Baden AG over a number of years, yet evidence has emerged that shows the tyre maker’s management team wasn’t as visionary as thought when planning this particular transaction. And it’s also become evident that Ihle’s description of itself as “Europe’s top-performing wholesaler for tyres, rims and complete wheel sets” hasn’t reflected reality for a long time now. Michelin’s purchase may now protect Ihle from further decline or even insolvency as since 2011, if not longer, Ihle has been in troubled waters and is, pending the consent of the German Federal Cartel Office, in need of rescue by Michelin before it sinks.
The Parts Alliance has made its eighth acquisition, buying out associate member Car Parts & Accessories (CPA). Established in 1995, CPA employs 120 people in 12 branches serving Hampshire, Sussex and Surrey. It has a delivery fleet of 60 vehicles and a turnover approaching £12 million.
Michelin is a step closer to future-proofing its Waterville factory site in Canada now that its bid to purchase adjacent land has been approved. It is understood that Michelin Canada will purchase 21 hectares, about half of an area currently used as an airport, and will set this extra land aside for the time being. It is hoped the land will come in handy should Michelin seek a location to host major expansion plans in future.
Yokohama Rubber has expanded its non-tyre business with the acquisition of Italian marine hose manufacturing and sales company Parker MHP S.r.l. from its US-based parent company Parker Hannifin Corporation. The Italian company’s name will be changed to Yokohama Industrial Products Italy S.r.l.
According to information available to Tyres & Accessories, major European wholesaler Ihle Baden-Baden AG may soon belong to Michelin. The French tyre maker is said to be planning a 100 per cent acquisition of parent company Ihle Holding AG, whose assets include some 20 companies. Ihle Baden-Baden AG, which is headquartered in the spa town that serves as its namesake, is Germany’s largest wholesaler and enjoys an annual turnover of around €175 million (2012). German and other European authorities are conducting merger control proceedings.
The Parts Alliance has acquired three more former Unipart Automotive (UA) branches. Located in the south west of England, the Chard, Frome and Plymouth sites are expected to re-open around the end of September, according to The Parts Alliance. They bring the number of former Unipart Automotive branches acquired by the HgCapital-owned business group to 15 including the 12 acquired in July after UA went into administration. 24 more jobs have been saved as a result, while Paul Dineen, formerly regional director with UA and head of the Unipart Car Care Centres (UCCC) programme, has been recruited to oversee the eight ex-UA sites in Barnstaple, Penryn, Taunton, Tiverton and Exeter.
Attempts by Kumho Tire parent company Kumho Asiana to reacquire Kumho Buslines from private equity consortium KoFC IBKS KStone PEF have run into difficulties, with consortium backers KStone Partners and IBK Investment & Securities claiming Kumho Asiana has tried to force down the Kumho Buslines purchase price by pressuring other potential bidders to step away.
Michelin’s acquisition of all outstanding shares in Brazilian digital fleet management and freight security firm Sascar Participações S.A. and its affiliated companies, which was first announced on 9 June, has now been completed. The transaction has been approved by the Brazilian competition authority (CADE) and all other closing procedures were finalised on 29 August 2014.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has reported the results of its long-awaited independent valuation of Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Company Ltd (CCT). The valuation, which is also the option price, was determined to be RMB 2.722 billion roughly US$440 million at the current exchange rate.
Federal-Mogul Motorparts, a division of Federal-Mogul Holdings Corporation is presenting some its latest brake pad developments at Automechanika in Frankfurt, Germany from the 16 to 20 September in hall 3.0, stand D.51. According to the company details about Federal-Mogul Motorparts strategies and its products – including Ferodo’s zero copper Eco-Friction brake pads will be shared along with information relating to the company’s recent acquisition of Honeywell’s Friction Material business.
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