In an interview published by German financial daily Börsen-Zeitung on Saturday, chief financial officer of Continental AG, Wolfgang Schäfer, stated that the company has set at least 3 billion euros aside for expanding within automotive markets through acquisitions.
No I am not talking about the unqualifiable rumours that Doublestar made an offer of up to 250 million euros for Zenises. Rather, that in the first week of September we learnt that Doublestar’s proposed acquisition of Kumho was collapsing before the firm’s eyes after the Qingdao-Chinese tyre manufacturer asked for a double-digit discount. And it is also worth considering what all this means for the wider tyre manufacturing sector.
The Zircotec Group has acquired performance exhaust coating and thermal management specialist Performance 1 Coatings (P1C). The takeover, which includes 100 per cent of the P1C business, widens the breadth of Zircotec Group’s product range, which now includes high quality performance coatings at every price point. The group states that the buy-out will enable P1C and its performance aftermarket customers to benefit from future product enhancements by Zircotec’s technology, OE-expertise and extensive in-house R&D facilities.
The Parts Alliance has acquired BMS Superfactors, their Greater Manchester-based associate member. BMS Superfactors has four branches in Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Dukinfield, collectively employing over 120 staff.
In response to a contracting market in 2013 and 2014, Italian wholesale giant Fintyre underwent a reorganisation, involving relocation north from Empoli to Seriate, Bergamo and a staff reduction of 60 employees. The overhaul of the company structure did not end there; it started a process in 2015, completed in late 2016, which has changed the face of Fintyre. This, it states, has consolidated its position as the leader of the Italian market with a share of around 25 per cent. In 2015, British investment firm BlueGem Capital Partners, which at that point held a 90 per cent share in Fintyre after its original 2009 investment, was recapitalised following a major financing agreement with GSO Capital Partners. The company then made two major acquisitions – Pneusmarket and Franco Gomme – which have helped to increase turnover from 255 million in 2014 to an estimate of more than 400 million euros in 2016.
New year. New diary. New balance sheet. New company? In this respect, 2016 got off to a flying start. No sooner had the year begun than we received news of some high profile, three-digit-million pound mergers and acquisitions. The first and the largest was the acquisition of well-known garage data supplier Autodata (see page 32, Company New section for complete details). However, within 24 hours this was followed by the potentially UK tyre wholesale and retail-changing announcement that Sumitomo Rubber Industries had acquired Micheldever Tyre Services.
HgCapital-owned Parts Alliance Group has acquired Waterloo (Motor Trade) Ltd. The company will continue to trade under its own name, serving customers in the East Riding of Yorkshire, with branches in Hull, Beverley and Bridlington. Waterloo was founded in 1928 by current managing director Jim Munday’s grandfather.
ChemChina is said to have expressed interest in Kumho Tire Co., according to Korean news source. Citing “industry sources” Pulse News said ChemChina “signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with creditors of Kumho Tire last month and began preparing for an official bid. The Chinese company selected Boston Consulting Group to advice on the deal.”
LKQ Corporation has announced that its United Kingdom subsidiary, Euro Car Parts, has acquired substantially all the business assets of UK automotive parts distributor Andrew Page Limited. As part of the transaction, Euro Car Parts will acquire 102 Andrew Page branch locations, its national distribution centre and corporate office.
While the vast majority of the UK’s tyre production and retreading capacity refers to trucks and a relatively small amount of car tyre retreading still takes place as well as some specialist earthmover retreading, one of the nation’s largest retreaders makes aircraft tyres. Dunlop Aircraft Tyre Ltd or DATL as it is known has demonstrated strong growth in recent years and is majority-owned by private equity. Put the two together and it begs the question – is Dunlop Aircraft Tyre Ltd (DATL) up for sale?
For many years now, the Parts Division (FPS, Apec and BTN) has been an independent division of Lookers PLC, the motor retail group, and has been well supported by them in serving the automotive aftermarket in the UK.
LKQ Euro Ltd, best known in the UK as Euro Car Parts Ltd, the trade based and retail car parts specialist, has announced the acquisition of leisure specialist Arleigh Group – which operates under the trading names of Arleigh International, Nova Leisure and Midland Chandlers.
Following its acquisition by the RAC, Nebula Systems is preparing to launch commercially its MECH5 diagnostics platform for independent garages. The platform will initially offer the functionality of Superscan 3 on a pay-as-you-go basis. With the help of the RAC investment, Nebula says it will use the flexibility of scalable cloud-based IT infrastructure to develop MECH5 rapidly.
National Tyres and Autocare will expand its network by 10 branches over the next year. Launching at the start of July, and projected to finish in early 2017, this expansion phase will include new branches in London, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, South Wales and the South West. These branches will join the existing network of 241 branch locations operating throughout the UK. National added that 14 further sites are currently “in the pipeline”. The network is the UK’s third largest; the latest expansion will demonstrate its sharpest growth in locations for five years.
Trelleborg has finalised its acquisition of leading agricultural, industrial and specialty tyre manufacturer, CGS Holding as. The total cash consideration amounted to approximately 10.9 billion Swedish krona (approximately £0.91 billion) on a cash and debt-free basis. CGS is headquartered in the Czech Republic and generated sales of approximately SEK 5.6 billion (£0.47 billion) in 2015 with an operating margin of 16.5 percent. The Czech company also produces engineered polymer solutions.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.