Allstate and State Farm, two of America’s largest insurers are aiming to recover the costs of claims paid out to victims of traffic accidents involving Ford Explorers and Firestone tyres. An insurance industry spokesman said” Firestone and Ford have attempted to avoid the courts and settled claims quietly with the plaintiffs, I would expect the same strategy with the insurance companies.”
Ford has asked the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to postpone crash testing of the 2002 Explorer to allow the manufacturer to make structural changes to the vehicle. Ford is making the changes after two of its trucks received “poor” or “marginal” ratings in crash testing.
The German insurance company “Allianz” wants to become involved in Formula 1. As the newspaper Die Welt announced recently, Aliens wants to sponsor the Williams-BMW team. Already with the coming German Grand Prix in two weeks at the Nürburgring, the company label will be on the racing car of the British team. It was mentioned that the insurance intends to invest 50 million DM (£16.3 million) in the team of Ralf Schuhmacher and Jensen Button.
In an interview with the German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Conti boss Kessel said that Pirelli would be an ideal partner for the tyre business, as this would produce significant synergies. To date, there has been no contact with the Italians over this matter.n According to Kessel, Continental need not fear any possible hostile takeover attempt because the car manufacturers would be very interested in maintaining competent and independent suppliers. In addition, the company could rely on strong backing from its individual important shareholders, such as Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank and Allianz insurance company, which together hold 16%. Kessel did not mention the fact that, in light of the low stock price, analysts had changed their minds last week and that most, if not all, of them do not regard Continental shares as a “buy” any longer. Hard times for Continental!
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