US-based industrial gases company Praxair, Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire Sibur-Russian Tyres’ industrial and packaged gases business in the Volgograd Region of the Russian Federation. The business operates under the name Volzhsky Azot and includes two air separation units and a bulk and packaged gas business. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Some financial analysts are recommending Continental shares ahead of a possible further sale of some of the stake directly owned by current 49.9 per cent shareholders Schaeffler Group. “Even if Schaeffler were to do another private placement of Conti shares, we think it might not be enough to satisfy investor appetite. We regard Conti as a structural, earnings and free cash flow driven overweight offering an attractive entry point,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in an investor’s note published 22 March.
At its annual press conference on 22 March, specialty chemicals company Lanxess reported record sales and earnings figures during the 2011 financial year. Highlights the company touched upon were a 23 per cent rise in sales to 8,775 million euros, EBITDA pre exceptionals up 25 per cent to 1,146 million euros – the first time the one billion euro mark has been exceeded. The company’s EBITDA margin pre exceptionals came in at 13.1 per cent, compared with 12.9 percent the year before. Net income rose disproportionately compared with sales and EBITDA pre exceptionals, improving by one third from the previous year to 506 million euros. These positive results were achieved, the company stated, thanks to its price-before-volume strategy, successful acquisitions and focus on the emerging markets.
Having already reported considerable success in the UK consumer market with its passenger car TPMS system, Tyresure has now unveiled its latest multi-axle truck and bus technology. According to the company, the Tyresure system can handle up to four tyres per axle and up to six axles, meaning 24 separate pressures and temperatures can be constantly monitored and then relayed back to the driver in an easy-to-read format with full automatic alerts. And there is even talk of the equipment being fitted to the fleets belonging to well-known names in the FMCG business.
The RMI's Independent Garage Association (IGA) has launched the Trust My Garage scheme, a consumer reassurance scheme for independent garages.
Stuart James, IGA Director, commented: "The Trust My Garage scheme offers consumers who use Independent garages financial reassurance in the event of a dispute or if the garage goes out of business. This reassurance is backed by the IGA.
As part of its mandate, the Infinity Tyres Foundation aims to help communities within the markets Infinity Tyres operates in. With that in mind, the foundation recently signed a ten year commitment to support the Arnold Foundation for Rugby School and help it to continue its good work. The scheme enables students in the UK who can’t afford a public school education to receive one in one of the country’s most prestigious boarding schools – supporting this is one of a number of ways the Infinity Tyres Foundation is particularly targeting the UK, and Infinity says it is intended as a way of saying thank you to the British market for having been such a huge supporter of the Infinity brand over many years.
While pleased that Pirelli’s figures were “in line” with expectations, financial analysts have reported their surprise at the Italian-based tyre manufacturers’ decision to raise its targets for 2012. According to advice sent out by Morgan Stanley the upgrade news is “a big surprise so soon after the investor day in the fourth quarter.” They expect target upgrade in the region of 8 to 10 per cent and immediately issued the succinct advice “buy”.
"Treasury officials are trying to spin their way out of the current debate over fuel duty by suggesting that they are giving £4 billion back to the motorist by deferring previous duty increases," said Brian Madderson, RMI Petrol Chairman.
On the 24 February The Financial Times stated that 'faced with a virulent media campaign and public protests at Westminster this month in favour of fuel duty cuts, the chancellor’s aides say he has provided more than £4bn to help motorists and cannot afford anymore.'
Financial analysts have expressed a vote of confidence in Continental AG’s present and future financial performance by increasing the price their expect the company’s shares to achieve in the medium term. Recommending a new, higher price target to its investors, Morgan Stanley analysts raised their price target for Continental stock to 90 euros per share, up some 15 euros from the previous target of 75 euros.
When Pirelli releases its fourth quarter financials on Monday, the results are likely to be a barometer of what can be expected from the company in the rest of 2012. That’s the view of financial analysts from Morgan Stanley that published their view in an investors note dated 8 March.
Their prediction is that Pirelli will report figures on the positive side of being in line with expectations: “We believe Pirelli will deliver 139 million euros of reported EBIT, a touch higher than the street and Pirelli’s targets.
Motorcycle insurance broker Carole Nash is to introduce free security marking kits as a standard benefit not only on all new road and off-road policies, but also on renewals. The move comes after a successful trial of Carole Nash DNA+ at the end of last year, which saw thousands of satisfied customers apply the anti-theft measure to their cherished motorcycles.
A business with multiple sites located across North West England, Equipe Tyre & Autocare is now seeing the benefit of monitoring energy usage. The idea is simple. If you can save energy you can save money. However, according to the company, getting on top of energy bills across all of its sites before the installation of smart meters was difficult; poor billing was a significant problem with meters being read infrequently. This led to over-estimated and costly bills being received. Equipe wanted a solution that would enable them to monitor usage, reduce the amount of energy wasted and most importantly ensured accurate billing for all of its premises.
On 1 March eleven graduates commenced Continental’s Explore Tires Research & Development trainee programme, and the German tyre maker has noted that – for the first time ever – female inductees outnumber their male counterparts; for 2012, the new intake of tyre research and development trainees includes six women and five men. Conti says that the proportion of women accepted for training in the research, development, production and marketing of tyres has been increasing over a number of years.
A number of Indian tyre makers have shared their views on commercial vehicle radialisation with the Financial Chronicle. Estimates of current radialisation levels within this sector vary between 18 and 24 per cent, and all who spoke to the newspaper believe the radial to cross-ply ratio will change dramatically in the coming years.
Continental’s fourth quarter adjusted pre-tax profits of 815 million euros (announced yesterday, 1 March) was 5 per cent ahead of the consensus of projections compiled by various financial analysts. At the same time the company’s fourth quarter sales of 7.7 billion were some 2 per cent higher. According to an investor’s note published by Morgan Stanley following the publication of the Continental’s financials, the company’ s margin of 10.3 per cent also came higher than consensus estimates at 10 per cent.
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