Nokian Tyres reports that it has received the sale price of 285 million euros from PJSC Tatneft for the sale of its operations in Russia. The total permissible transaction price defined by the Russian Governmental Commission was 23,050 million rubles. Now there are just “registration formalities” before the transaction completes and Nokian Tyres’ operations in Russia therefore end.
PJSC Tatneft reports that the Russian Governmental Commission on Monitoring Foreign Investments has approved Tatneft’s purchase of Nokian Tyres plc’s operations in Russia, a deal that was announced on 28 October 2022. That much was expected, some would say overdue. However, Nokian Tyres reports that Tatneft will only be paying around 286 million euros for company’s high-tech St. Petersburg factory and other local assets.
Toward the end of December 2022, we reported that Tatneft had applied for FAS approval to buy the Nokian Tyres St. Petersburg factory. That deal, which is yet to be completed, centred on “the acquisition of 100 per cent of “Nokian Tyres LLC, Hakka Invest LLC and Nokian Shina LLC from Nokian Tyres” for just over 400 million euros. Around the same time, the Russian national patenting body, Rospatent, reported that Nokian Tyres LLC, which operates Nokian’s Russian tyre for the Finnish tyremaker, had filed applications for the registration of new trademarks.
Nokian Tyres is renewing its winter tyre portfolio for Europe with the introduction of a new flagship range and updates for an existing product, extending the Nokian Snowproof family to four tyre models. The new flagship is Snowproof 2, and its arrival is accompanied by the European debut of SilentDrive technology.
Full-year 2022 financial results show that – in terms of share price performance, at least – Japanese tyre manufacturers are leading the way on the global stage. Much has happened in the last five years, but five-year share price data is clear that the costs of chip shortages, shipping, dearer raw materials, pandemic and war have hit European and Western tyre brands harder than their Japanese counterparts. We compared the share performance of five of the largest European and Western tyre brands (namely: Michelin, Goodyear, Continental, Pirelli and Nokian) during the last five years with the leading Japanese-based tyre manufacturers (Bridgestone, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Yokohama and Toyo Tires) in order to gain an insight into their relative performance.
Anyone listening to the Nokian Tyres conference call on Tuesday in the hope of gaining insights into negotiations with Tatneft were sorely disappointed. More than 3 months after Nokian announced the sale of its Russian operations for around 400 million euros, fundamental aspects of the deal are still completely opaque. Jukka Moisio, president and CEO of Nokian Tyres, brought no clarity to the subject.
The official Chinese website of Nokian Tyres states that the Finnish tyre manufacturer is withdrawing from business in the Chinese market due to its “limited production capacity”.
Nokian Tyres reports that its fourth-quarter 2022 net sales totalled 411.3 million euros, down 19.8 per cent from 512.6 million euros in October–December 2021. Operating profit was 13.5 million euros (Q4 2022: 88.0 million). Despite that, the company’s full-year 2022 net sales grew 3.6 per cent to 1,776.1 million euros (2021: 1,714.1 million euros). However, that wasn’t enough to prevent a full-year 2022 loss of 116.2 million euros (2021: 268.2 million euros profit). Executives put the fourth-quarter declines down to “lower passenger car tyre supply volumes…”, something that is a veiled reference to the fact that the company is wrestling with a serious passenger car tyre production gap.
Publishing its second-half 2022 report on 25 January, Solidium Oy (Nokian Tyres’ largest single shareholder) expressed confidence in the Finnish tyremaker’s work last year.
How the Russia-Ukraine war, the company’s low share price and other challenges make Nokian Tyres prime takeover material for a premium brand with the money and desire
The government of Romania has approved state aid of almost 100 million euros to Nokian Tyres PLC. The tyre maker intends to establish a new factory in Oradea, and the ad hoc regional state aid will finance the costs related to the factory’s establishment and address the financing gap related to this greenfield investment.
In a busy terminal, tyre stability and long service life are key factors in ensuring operational safety and efficiency for reach stackers, forklifts and log stackers. Nokian Tyres says it developed the HTS G2 harbour tyre family for this purpose, adding that this range’s “excellent stability, good grip and predictable service life has been impressing users for years.” The scope to impress has now grown with the arrival of a new HTS G2 family member. As of 17 January, the Nokian Tyres HTS G2 L5-S, a fitment intended for use on reach stacker front axles, is available in size 18.00-25.
The Association for Finnish Work, a Helsinki-based organisation tasked with raising the profile of Finnish-made products and ensuring their success, has granted Nokian Heavy Tyres the right to use its Key Flag symbol on tyres, wheels and retreading materials. The Key Flag denotes that these products are produced in Finland and contain at least 50% domestic content.
Nokian Tyres is investing approximately US$174 million to double tyre capacity at its factory in the USA and to expand warehousing capabilities at the Dayton, Tennessee site. This project will lead to the creation of 75 new jobs at the Dayton facility this year, and the expansion will also enable Nokian to add light truck tyres to the plant’s product mix in 2023.
Tatneft applied for Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) approval for its plans to buy “a number of Russian subsidiaries of Finland’s Nokian Tyres” on 14 December.
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Source: Solidium Oy
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