Apollo Tyres is to invest 400 million rupees in truck and bus radial production at the company’s Limba plant. Apollo’s announcement follows the news in October 2005 that Michelin had bought Apollo Tyres’ stake in the two companies’ joint venture. At the time Michelin cited the “slower than projected pace” of radialisation as its reason for the move.
Life has been hard for Dunlop Zimbabwe in recent months, now the company is being targeted for takeover by India’s Apollo Tyres, it has emerged. Dunlop International CEO Mark Hankinson is expected to travel to Harare in the next two weeks, the Zimbabwe Financial Gazette reported. Hankinson, whose group controls 75 per cent of Dunlop Zimbabwe is quoted as saying “We are talking to a number of people.”
Michelin has put its planned collaboration with Apollo Tyres on hold while the businesses wait for the national radialisation rate to gather speed. The companies maintained that their working relationship was on track, but that demand has to increase before manufacturing work gets underway.
Apollo Tyres Limited is to expand the passenger car radial (PCR) capacity of its Limda plant, the Business Standard has reported. The company will reportedly invest 3 billion rupees (£38.33 million) in the expansion of its PCR capacity at its Limda unit.
A lower excise duty and a higher operating profit helped Apollo Tyres Ltd achieve a 25.48 per cent increase in earnings during the third quarter of 2005 (July-September) compared with same period last year. The company has declared a net profit of 180.6 million rupees (£2.26 million) for the quarter ended 30 September 2005 against 148.7 million rupees a year ago. Net sales grew marginally year-on-year from 6 billion rupees to 6.32 billion rupees in the reporting quarter, operating profit rose to 600 million rupees from 465.4 million.
Michelin has bought Apollo Tyres’ stake in the two companies’ joint venture. In addition to the 49 per cent stake Michelin now owns as a result of the acquisition, the French manufacturer will hold onto the 14.9 per cent stake it acquired in Apollo Tyres two years ago. Explaining the reason behind the buy-out, Michelin said: “While the use of radial tyres has gone up in the past two years, it is at a pace that was slower than projected by the partners.”
(India/Rubber Asia) Leading Indian tyre maker, Apollo Tyres Ltd, reported a net profit of 166.9 million (£2.07 million) for the first quarter ended 30 June against 156.3 million rupees last year.
Metro Tyres has suggested that it might consider going public in order to fund a possible acquisition of Falcon Tyres. The news follows the company’s recent admission that it was interested in purchasing Falcon Tyres.
Indian news sources are reporting that the race for Falcon Tyres is hotting up, with the Hero Group and Metro Tyres entering the fray to acquire the two-wheeler tyre maker. Sources say Apollo Tyres and JK Tyres, who were earlier in the race, have dropped out because of various reasons. The Bangalore-based Falcon Tyres is part of late Manu Chhabria’s Jumbo group. The company markets its tyre under the Dunlop brand.
If successful, Falcon’s acquisition will give the Hero Group an entry into the tyre business, while Metro will leapfrog to number two position in the Indian ‘two-wheeler tyre market,’ from a distant fifth at the moment. Asked to comment, Sunil Kant Munjal, CEO and managing director, Hero Corporate Services, refused to confirm or deny the move. “I just don’t want to discuss whether we are interested in Falcon or not,” said Mr Munjal.
(India/Rubber Asia) Leading Indian tyre maker, Apollo Tyres Ltd, reported a net profit of 166.9 million rupees (£2.2 million) for the first quarter of the current financial year, ended 30 June, up 13.6 million rupees (£180,000) compared with the same period last year.
(India/Rubber Asia) Indian tyre prices are likely to go up by 4 to 5 per cent in the coming days, according to Mr. Onkar S Kanwar, chairman of Apollo Tyres Ltd. Rocketing prices of raw materials such as natural rubber, carbon black and other petroleum products, plus the existing duty structure which impacts the profitability of companies are the reasons for the impending tyre prices hike, he says.
(India/Rubber Asia) Onkar S. Kanwar, chairman of Apollo Tyres, has been named as the head of the Board of Trade working groups (WGs) set up by the Indian Commerce Ministry in order to boost exports from the country.
Mr Kanwar, who is also the president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, heads the WG on “trade facilitation”. The WGs were expected to submit their reports to the Board chairman before September.
The Asia Rubtech Expo 2006, is expected to attract around 900 delegates including 30 from overseas. The international conference, which will be organised by the Kerala and Mumbai branches of the Indian Rubber Institute (IRI) from will run from 23 to 25 November 2006 at Hotel Le Meridien in Kochi.
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Apollo Tyres’ Vadodara is running at normal capacity following more than a week of disruption to its 6000 tyres per day production. The factory had been running at full capacity when at the midnight of 30 May, the leadership of one of the three trade unions declared a strike. Apollo representatives report that such stoppages without prior notice are illegal according to existing labour laws. Furthermore the action was prohibited by an order issued by the Government of Gujarat on 7 June 2005. After this the factory resumed normal operations.
India’s Apollo Tyres has reported that it achieved record sales in the fourth quarter of its 2004/2005 financial year. At the same time the company announced a 45 per cent dividend. For the 2004/2005 year Apollo Tyres Ltd posted a gross turnover of 26.56 billion rupees (£332 million), a 15 per cent growth over the previous year. The company also registered the highest quarterly sales achieved in its history – over 7.5 billion rupees in the last fourth quarter. This represents 21 per cent growth over the same period last year. At the same time the company maintained three per cent net profit.
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