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.
Sensata Technologies Holding NV, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Sensata Technologies BV, has agreed to buy TPMS Schrader group of companies from Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC for a total enterprise value of US$1 billion. Schrader is the global leader in tire pressure monitoring sensors (TPMS). According to the company, the transaction provides TPMS and additional low pressure sensing capabilities, adding to Sensata’s “industry-leading sensing position”. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval but is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2014.
Bent Nielsen is no longer a shareholder in the tyre recycling company he set up after Denmark’s PKA (Pensionskassernes Administration A/S) acquired his 52 per cent stake in Genan yesterday; with this added to its existing 48 per cent share, Genan is now firmly in the pension fund administrator’s hands – but today PKA allegedly claimed that both Genan and Nielsen have duped it over a number of years.
Off-road tyre, wheel and track specialist Camoplast Solideal Inc. has acquired Brazilian industrial tyre manufacturer Rodaco. With this purchase, Camoplast Solideal says it has improved its capacity to manufacture and distribute tyres for the material handling industry in South America.
French tyre show “Pneu Expo” and the publishing house behind “Le Pneumatique” – currently France’s only tyre trade magazine – are now in new hands. NewsCo Group, a trade publisher based in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, is reported to have purchased Versailles-based company Éditions VB for an undisclosed sum. Éditions VB is said to have had a capital of €166,400.
Euro Car Parts acquired 27 former Unipart Automotive branches yesterday (7 August). Following negotiations with Unipart Automotives’s administrators, Mark Orton, Will Wright and Jonny Marston from KPMG, Euro Car Parts has secures the sites across England, Scotland and Wales, taking the ECP network to 194 branches. At the same time Parts Alliance reported it had taken on over 500 ex-Unipart Automotive works.
Onkar Kanwar has used the opportunity afforded by his company’s 41st Annual General Meeting to share Apollo Tyres’ view of why the planned acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber never materialised. The Apollo chairman also spoke on upcoming plans and the market opportunities and challenges the tyre maker has identified.
Around two years ago, Kumho Tire’s parent company the Kumho Asiana Group was heavily indebted, and sold its Kumho Buslines bus operation to a private equity company. Now the Korean conglomerate intends to repurchase the business, however concerns exist that the purchase price may end up being too high.
The European Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of the steel tyre cord business of the Italian company Pirelli by its Belgian-based rival NV Bekaert SA under the EU Merger Regulation. According to an official statement dated 31 July, the commission concluded that the acquisition “would not raise competition concerns as the merged entity’s customers, which are large, multinational tyre companies, have countervailing buyer power which is further strengthened by over-capacity in the steel tyre cord market.”
The 100 per cent acquisition of exhaust technologies specialist Emitec by Continental took effect yesterday. Continental has bought out former 50/50 joint venture partner GKN and will integrate Emitec into its Powertrain division. The Emitec operation will be combined with Continental’s Fuel Supply business unit to form the new Fuel & Exhaust Management business unit.
The trade regulatory body in the Netherlands, the Autoriteit Consument & Markt (Authority for Consumers and Markets), reports that it received notification of the proposed concentration of the Inter-Sprint Group and the Van den Ban Group on 21 July. Both companies have approached the authority seeking its permission to go ahead with Inter-Sprint’s full acquisition of Van den Ban. The Autoriteit Consument & Markt says it is now evaluating the proposed acquisition and will announce its decision within four weeks from the date it received initial notification of the purchase plans.
33 Unipart Automotive sites were transferred to Andrew Page and The Parts Alliance in a deal that saved 361 jobs. The full list of sites taken on by Andrew Page and the Parts Alliance is published below, while the remaining 147 sites that are currently inactive follow.
Automotive parts business Andrew Page has rescued around 350 jobs, spearheading a deal with The Parts Alliance to takeover 33 branches of Unipart Automotive, which entered administration today. Andrew Page has taken 21 branches and The Parts Alliance a total of 12, with the terms of the deal as yet undisclosed. Andrew Page rejoined major UK and Ireland buying and distribution group The Parts Alliance following a six year absence on 8 July, coinciding with Unipart Automotive’s announcement that it had put the administrators on standby, a clear signal that some kind of move was on the cards. Tyrepress estimated Andrew Page possessed a growing share of the automotive parts market of around seven per cent at the time; the company will expect today’s news will help to grow that share quickly, having increased its existing network of 93 branches by 23 per cent.
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