(Akron/Tire Review) The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co announced that it has closed $3.65 billion in new credit facilities, including a $1.5 billion asset-based revolving credit facility due in 2010.
Other credit facilities include a $1.2 billion second-lien term loan due in 2010 and a $300 million third-lien secured term loan facility due in 2011.
(Akron/Tire Review) Canadian Tire has introduced its 2005-2009 strategic plan, which includes establishing up to 285 new and replacement retail stores, to shareholders.
(Akron/Tire Review) After four successive years of losses, Alliance Tire Co. reported a net profit of $0.9 million for 2004 in its newly released financial results. The company ended 2003 with a net loss of $13.1 million. But, in 2004, gross profits increased to $31.1 million, compared to $20.4 million in the previous year.
(Akron/Tire Review) Former Kmart executive James Donlon has been named senior vice president and CFO of ArvinMeritor, effective 1 April. Mr Donlon served as senior vice president and CFO at Kmart.
In this new position, Mr Donlon will drive ArvinMeritor’s financial performance, as well as provide comprehensive financial direction and guidance to the corporation.
Pirelli Spa & C will pay a smaller dividend for the 2004 financial year than it did for 2003. The Italian company has proposed to pay a dividend of 0.021 euros per ordinary share and 0.0314 euros per savings share. The ordinary share dividend is 30 per cent lower than last year, when the company paid out 0.031 euros and 0.414 euros respectively. In spite of the dividend decrease the company paid out 113 million euros, more than it did in previous years.
Goodyear’s Assurance played a key role Goodyear’s recent financial improvements, according to a report in the Akron Beacon journal. Goodyear first rolled out the products a year ago in an effort to generate excitement for its flagship brand.
ThyssenKrupp subsidiary, ThyssenKrupp Technologies has sold its Elastomertechnik business. ThyssenKrupp Technologies sold the tyre production machinery firm to the Lubeck based Possehl Group. The new owners have applied for the purchase to be registered retrospectively from the 1 October 2004. Elastomertechnik owns facilities in Hamburg and Freudenberg (Germany) plus Topeka/USA and Belisce/Kroatia. The company made a turnover of 145 million euros in the 2003/2004 financial year.
The Austrian Alcar group has taken over Italian wheel manufacturer Consud, Srl. Although the acquisition took place some months ago, the news has only just become public. In total, the new factory and the group’s existing Ambrosetti plant will produce 2.5 million units annually. Hayes Lemmerz is another large source of the group’s steel wheels. Alcar is the European market leader for passenger car steel wheels, sellng 5.6 million units in the last financial year. Of these, 90 per cent were produced by either Hayes Lemmerz or the company itself.
In 2004 Group Michelin achieved a turnover of 15.6 billion euros ($21.07 billion) and an operating income of 1.299 billion euros, 8.3 per cent of the company’s total turnover. At the same time, net income rose to 527 million euros ($705 million). Put simply, last year’s figures don’t contain any big surprises.
In spite of significant price increases in several areas, Group Michelin proved its lasting profitability. At the end of 2004 Michelin had net debts of 3.2 billion euros, a number which is broadly in line with what the financial world expected. The largest proportion of the operating income came from the passenger car/SUV tyre division, which brought in 731 million euros. The truck division’s operating income totalled 548 million euros, a relatively high figure considering that the segment’s turnover is significanly lower than the passenger car division. For the first time, the group’s ‘other activities’ division, found its way into the black, reporting 20 million euros of operating income.
(Akron/TR) Cutbacks, fast rising raw material costs and marketshare battles by US automakers have created a crisis among auto part and component suppliers, according to a Detroit News report today.
Continental AG, Hanover, can now proceed with the integration of the Hamburg-based Phoenix AG into its ContiTech AG subsidiary. The control and profit and loss transfer agreement between ContiTech AG as con-trolling enterprise and Phoenix AG as dependent enterprise was entered into the commercial register on 9 March, 2005. The agreement, approved at an extraordinary meeting of Phoenix AG shareholders on 28 December, 2004, can therefore go to effect.
The RAC has agreed to a £1.1 billion takeover approach from insurer, Aviva. Aviva said buying the RAC would boost its Norwich Union insurance business “creating a powerful new combination in insurance and motoring services.” It added that combining Norwich Union and the RAC would allow cost savings of at least £80m a year in 2006. On Tuesday, RAC shares jumped 19 per cent after it said it had received a bid approach. Aviva, UK’s largest general insurer, could be interested in developing the RAC’s promising financial services business, observers said. The company declined to comment.
Continental is currently considering plans to build a new tyre factory in Europe, according to Dr Alan Hippe, chief financial officer. If demands continue to be as strong as they are today, it would be the next logical step, said Dr Hippe speaking at the Geneva Motor Show. Such a new facility would have to be built in Eastern Europe, possibly in Lithuania, writes the Berliner Morgenpost. Recently Continental invested a considerable amount of money in Eastern Europe in order to cut production costs.
Deutsche Bank analysts reported that Continental’s presentation was both “bullish“ and “striking.” In his presentation, Dr Hippe explained that Continental had revised its ESP penetration expectations for the US market to about 18 per cent in 2006, lifting the volume target to 1 million units. The CFO also suggested that the German manufacturer could be in a net cash position as early as the end of 2005. According to the analysts, “the bottom line is the growth and free cash story continues (at least 600-700 million euros per year).”
Michelin has confirmed that it will be injecting a multi-million pound investment package into its UK service chain ATS Euromaster this year, so that it can continue to develop its added value customer focus started in 2004. According to the company this 10-year programme is part of a wider investment schedule that will be introduced and rolled out throughout the coming years.
In the aftermath of yesterday’s not-too-surprising announcement that Goodyear will sell its agricultural tyre operations to Titan International, more details have come to light, reports Tire Review.
Goodyear agreed to sell the assets of its agricultural group, including its farm tyre plant in Freeport, Illinois, to Titan for approximately $100 million. The deal also gives Titan the right to produce and market agricultural tyres under the Goodyear brand name. However, under Goodyear’s current master contract with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), any facility sale is contingent on the union and the prospective new owner reaching agreement on a new contract for the plant in question.
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