(Akron/Tire Review) Cooper Tire & Rubber Co announced a quarterly dividend of 10.5 cents per share on common stock, payable 30 December to stockholders at the close of business on 2 December. According to Cooper, this is its 135th consecutive quarterly dividend.
(Akron/Tire Review) Cooper Tire & Rubber Co has commenced a cash tender offer for specified series of its outstanding debt, and is offering to purchase up to $175 million in an aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 7-3/4 per cent notes due 2009, 7-5/8 per cent notes due 2027, and 8 per cent notes due 2019. The tender, said Cooper, will expire at the close of business on 13 December.
(Akron/Tire Review) Becky MacDicken, director of government affairs with TIA, has announced her resignation. She is leaving the association as of 2 December to work with the Pennsylvania state government on a business education initiative. MacDicken, who has been with TIA for more than five years, has played an active role in helping shape TREAD Act regulations for the tire industry, and numerous other legislative and bureaucratic issues impacting tire dealers and the industry at large.
The Environment Agency today launched a new awareness campaign reminding companies, businesses and local mechanics to dispose of waste oil safely and legally or face tough penalties.
Under the new Waste Incineration Directive – to be implemented on 28th December 2005 – companies that incinerate waste oils such as, power stations and road stone coaters, must meet strict new environmental regulations. As a result, the price of disposal is expected to increase.
Russian-Dutch tyre maker Amtel-Vredestein has admitted to using tax optimisation schemes up to 2002, according to Russian newspaper Vedomosti. The report refers to a period before Amtel bought Vredestein and comes after Amtel-Vredestein set an indicative range of $13 to $16 per Global Depositary Receipt in its London IPO, which is expected to raise around $300 million and value the company at $1.2 billion.
SmarTire Systems Inc has reported gross revenue of $594,000 for the quarter ended 31 October 2005, an increase of approximately $292,000 or 97 per cent compared with the same quarter of 2004. Total sales to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market for the quarter ended were approximately $437,000, an increase of approximately $264,000 or 153 per cent against the same quarter of 2004. SmarTire will file its Form 10-QSB for the first quarter ended 31 October 2005 by 15 December 2005.
Al Kozak, president and CEO of SmarTire, said, “We are beginning to see results from our shift in focus toward value-added systems for the OEM market. We are very encouraged by these results. Although they are well below where we expect to be in the coming quarters and years, it is clear we are moving in the right direction.”
December’s magazine will feature a review of 2005. But rather than just looking back, T&A will question some of the business’ major players about whether they have achieve all they intended to in the preceding 12 months. At the same time we want to look forward to the future developments that are due to take place in 2006.
October car sales of 14.7 million were the lowest since August 1998, Deutsche Bank analysts have reported. “GM’s retail sales declined 30 per cent year-on-year; Ford’s retail sales declined 31 per cent; We estimate Chrysler’s retail sales fell 24 per cent. This was weaker than expected, and it represents much more of a decline than can be explained by pull forward,” they explained.
The FIA World Motorsport Council has officially approved new Formula 1 rules, which will see the series re-introduce a control tyre and bring back tyre changes. The new rules also mean larger wheels and slick tyres will be used. The new rules state: “Each driver will be permitted to use seven sets of dry-weather tyres for each event. All tyres used for qualifying and race must be of the same specification. Tyre changes will be permitted at any time during the race.”
While the reintroduction of pit-stop tyre changes and the use of more than one set of tyres will begin next season, the control tyre concept, larger wheel sizes and slick tyres were originally slated for 2008. However, the FIA has allowed for this collection of rules to be brought forward to 2007 if an 80 per cent majority of the Formula One Technical Working Group agree to do so before the end of December 2005.
The last six winners of the Dakar Rally have claimed victory on BFGoodrich tyres. The manufacturer now has a special BFGoodrich team competing in next year’s event and wanted to offer tyre dealers the opportunity to win a place in the driving seat. And so the Adventure Raid was born.
Sumitomo Corp, the third-largest trading house in Japan, said it has reached an agreement to acquire US automobile tyre retailer TBC Corp this year for some 120 billion yen (£600 million). Sumitomo said it will complete the acquisition at the end of December. The acquisition is intended to solidify Sumitomo’s existing tyre business and increase profits by expanding into tyre retailing, the company said in a statement. The Japanese company plans to expand its tyre business in the U.S. by adding TBC’s more than 1,000 retail stores to its Treadways Corp. wholesaling business.
Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc has sold its wholly owned Equipment and Engineering subsidiary, located in Au Gres, Michigan. The equipment business was sold to Todd G Carlson and former Hayes Lemmerz employee Daniel D Minor. The business will be renamed CMI – Equipment and Engineering, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In the coming months a whole raft of EU legislation affecting different aspects of the tyre business is set to come in place. First the Hazardous Waste regulation came into force on 16 April. Now the end of life vehicle directive (2000/53/EC) banning the use of lead balancing weights is upon us. Next up is the Waste Incineration Directive (due to be implemented from 28 December), which is sure to have a knock-on effect on the way tyres are disposed of and at what cost. The last regulation in the current run is the second part of the EU tyre landfill ban (1999/31/EC), which prevents chipped tyres from being disposed of at landfill sites in July 2006 – not to mention the working time directive.
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(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co has reported that it has “reclassified” financial information to reflect the integration of its chemical products business segment into its North American tire segment. The reclassification applies to financial information for each of the three previous years, ending on 31 December 2004.
(Akron/Tire Review) Cooper-Standard Holdings, the parent of Cooper-Standard Automotive, has reported results for its first full quarter as a stand-alone company. The company posted revenues of $470.1 million for the first quarter, which ended on 31 March, compared to a record $497 million for the prior year same quarter.
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