JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. is working towards merging with its 2016-acquired subsidiary Cavendish Industries Ltd. (CIL). Following the merger, all the company’s tyre operations in India will be housed within a single listed company, an arrangement expected to result in greater synergies, a simplified structure and less red tape. JK Tyre also views a merger with CIL as a means of “unlocking value” for its shareholders as well as improving investor perceptions.
LKQ Corporation, the parent company of LKQ Euro Car Parts, is seeking to divest GSF Car Parts (GSF) following its acquisition of the factor’s Canadian owner, Uni-Select. With the transaction subject to the receipt of anti-trust clearance in the UK, LKQ Corporation made the offer as part of its application for the UK competition authority’s approval. In the interim, LKQ Corporation will not be involved in the day-to-day running of the GSF business with the existing management team remaining in place and the organisation ringfenced from LKQ. LKQ announced its plan to acquire Uni-Select for around US$2.1 billion on 27 February.
Now Yokohama has confirmed its acquisition of Trelleborg Wheel Systems (TWS), we can talk more definitively about the rationale behind the purchase. There are several drivers behind the acquisition, but they all boil down to Yokohama’s desire to increase global leadership and rebalances its product mix.
Yokohama Tire has bid around $2 billion for Trelleborg Wheel Systems in a move that could further expand the Japanese company’s growing off-highway tyre business. Sources close to the bid told Tyres & Accessories that Yokohama is currently in a due diligence process that is likely to be completed during the next month or so. Yokohama previously bid for Prometeon, the ex-Pirelli industrial/off-highway tyre business at the end of 2019. Despite ongoing discussions over the following year or so, that deal wasn’t completed. Yokohama appointed the former global head of Prometeon, Gregorio Borgo, as its European president earlier this year. Trelleborg Wheel Systems executives declined to comment on the reports.
Hankook Tire concedes that its response to last year’s “extremely challenging” business environment and the rapidly-changing trends influencing the tyre industry was “not fully sufficient” to combat downward pressure upon its business. Hyun Shick Cho, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Hankook Technology Group, has addressed this issue in a letter to shareholders, discussing means of responding preemptively to these changing trends.
Qingdao Doublestar Tire, owner of Kumho Tire since July 2018, has once again grown through an acquisition. The Chinese tyre maker says it has completed the purchase of Shandong Hengyu Technology Co., Ltd. for RMB 899 million (£103.1 million). Doublestar disclosed in March that it had signed an agreement with Hengyu Technology’s administrator to acquire 100 per cent equity in the business.
ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a leading global technology group and supplier of mobility systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WABCO for $136.50 per share. The planned acquisition has been approved by ZF’s management board and supervisory board and WABCO’s board of directors. Together, ZF and WABCO will form a leading global integrated mobility systems provider for commercial vehicles, creating added value for ZF’s commercial vehicle customers. The combined company will have sales of approximately €40 billion.
At the end of April the UK’s second largest supermarket Sainsbury’s announced that it is merging with the Walmart-owned Asda supermarket. The goal? To push first-placed Tesco off the top-spot and to give the newly combined chain better access to different geographic areas and consumers. Strange as it may seem at first glance, this story can be read across to the tyre market in general and the truck tyre segment in particular (click here for complete coverage on developments associated with the recently initiated European anti-Chinese truck tyre import tariffs).
Consolidation within Europe’s commercial vehicle steel wheel market is coming, but three will remain the magic number when it comes to suppliers. Some ten months after the proposed deal was first announced, the European Commission has granted its conditional blessing for Accuride Corporation to acquire steel wheel manufacturer Mefro Wheels GmbH.
New year. New diary. New balance sheet. New company? In this respect, 2016 got off to a flying start. No sooner had the year begun than we received news of some high profile, three-digit-million pound mergers and acquisitions. The first and the largest was the acquisition of well-known garage data supplier Autodata (see page 32, Company New section for complete details). However, within 24 hours this was followed by the potentially UK tyre wholesale and retail-changing announcement that Sumitomo Rubber Industries had acquired Micheldever Tyre Services.
HgCapital-owned Parts Alliance Group has acquired Waterloo (Motor Trade) Ltd. The company will continue to trade under its own name, serving customers in the East Riding of Yorkshire, with branches in Hull, Beverley and Bridlington. Waterloo was founded in 1928 by current managing director Jim Munday’s grandfather.
Timo Tervolin has been appointed as vice president, strategy and corporate development and a member of Nokian Tyres’ management team. According to the company, his responsibilities will include leading Nokian’s strategy process and strategic programmes, mergers and acquisitions, and monitoring markets and competition.
Trelleborg has signed an agreement to acquire the Czech Republic’s CGS Holding a.s. for approximately 10.9 billion Swedish Krona (£830 million) on a cash and debt-free basis. The privately-owned company is active in the agricultural and specialty tyre business segments, including the strong Mitas tyre brand, as well as engineered polymer solutions. Closing of the transaction is subject to approvals from relevant competition authorities and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016.
Eight weeks to the day, Auto Windscreens (part of the Markerstudy Group of Companies) has today (1st October) confirmed that the deal to purchase AA AutoWindshields has completed. With no time to lose to ensure the full integration of 200 staff and technicians, this is cited as a phenomenally successful exercise in communication and collaboration by the Sunday Times Best Companies Top 100 listed organisation.
The formal agreement to acquire Test World was preceded by the establishment of a “strategic collaboration” between Millbrook and the Finnish facility in June 2015. The collaboration was announced at Automotive Testing Expo Europe 2015, in Stuttgart which ran from 16 – 18 June. There the growing partnership between the two companies could be seen in their adjoining exhibition stands designed to demonstrate the range of facilities and services the two businesses can offer.
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