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Goodyear Shares Lowered to Sell Rating

Deutsche Bank analysts have lowered Goodyear’s share advice rating from hold to sell. The announcement comes in spite of the fact that Goodyear’s shares have performed strongly since mid-October in response to positive news from the industry, stabilisation of market share losses, and increased optimism about a turnaround. However, now that the company’s share price has reached 21 times the analysts’ 2005 estimate, the bank believes the price growth will slow down. According to the analysts, “the bull case is more than fully reflected.”

4th February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Amtel Aims to Expand into Europe

Following the news that Amtel was in “detailed discussions” with Vredestein Banden, Amtel president, Sudhir Gupta has confirmed that his company will buy Vredestein Banden and that it is planning initial public offerings (IPO) in London and Moscow in the next two years.

According to Dr Gupta, Amtel is planning a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange followed by a secondary listing on the Russian Stock Exchange. In a conversation with far eastern business publication, Business Times, Dr Gupta explained why the IPO would take place in London and not New York. “Europeans always understand Russia better than the Americans and most of the investment in Russia is European. That’s why we think London is a better place to list.” The secondary listing is also the result of ‘encouragement’ from the authorities for successful companies to list on the Russian Stock Exchange, and because “the stock exchange has good liquidity because of high oil prices.”

The listings are due to take place in one of two time frames; either October to November 2005 or April to May the year after, the Amtel president said.

Currently, Dr Gupta owns about 85 per cent of Amtel. An international investment fund managed by Templeton Asset Management Ltd, owns 5.65 per cent, while 10 per cent of Amtel’s shares were recently sold in a private placement for $34.2 million. These shares were bought by about 22 institutional investors in Europe, the US and Russia.

It is clear that a key part of Amtel’s expansion plans will involve venturing outside of Russian borders. One part of this is the company’s purchase of Vredestein Banden. By purchasing the Dutch company, Amtel appears to have been aiming to buy a ready-made foothold in the market. At the moment Vredestein sells 40 per cent its tyres in Europe’s biggest market (Germany) and has well organised distribution operations across Europe.
When the news of this transaction broke, Tyres & Accessories spoke to Vredestein CEO, Rob Oudshoorn. He described the venture as a win-win situation, saying, “one plus one equals three.” When the Vredestein boss visited Amtel’s factory in the summer, he said that he was surprised to see such modern equipment, maintaining that it was of a similar standard to Vredestein’s Enschede facility.

From his point of view, there is still a quality gap between imported products and those produced in Russia. Apart from believing that it can fill this gap, Vredestein sees Amtel’s size and influence as positive factors that will help it to reach further.
For Dr Gupta, there were other economic reasons for the transaction. “We had two options, either go ahead, spend money and time to build a global brand out of Amtel or go out and do some acquisition. So we agreed to buy this brand,” he told Business Times adding “we are looking to buy 100 per cent.” According to Amtel’s president, the sale is expected to be completed by middle of March 2005. When the two companies merge, they are expected to have a combined market value of $1 billion.

Dr Gupta is surprisingly pragmatic about doing business in Russia. This is surprising, because only a few years ago he survived an assassination attempt, something that would put most people off a country. According to the businessman, the men responsible for the murder attempt have been caught and will be prosecuted very soon. Despite his experience, Dr Gupta still believes Russia is a good place to do business, citing the country’s geographical position, the education of its people and its rich supply of natural resources as reasons to stay.

4th February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Kumho Tire Raises $363 Million in IPO

Kumho Tire, South Korea’s second-largest tyre maker, raised 373 billion won (around £193 million) in its recent IPO, according to the Reuters news agency. The total equates to the country’s largest issue in more than six months, the report added.

Kumho, which controls 42 per cent of the home tyre market, is selling 25.49 million shares at 14,650 won each, near the midpoint of an expected range between 13,250 won to 16,000 won, a source familiar with the deal said. The world’s 11th-largest tyre maker, will use the proceeds to expand its operations in China and slash debt. The dual listing in London and Seoul attracted good demand while Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. of the United States pledged to buy nearly 30 per cent of the shares offered, the report concluded.

4th February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Rating Agency Reviews Cooper’s Debt Rating

Moody’s Investors Service is reviewing and may downgrade the debt rating for Findlay’s Cooper Tire & Rubber Co, the rating agency has said. Cooper Tire officials told Moody’s they expect to use $100 million to $200 million of proceeds from the nearly $1.2 billion sale of Cooper-Standard to reduce debt, the agency said. Other proceeds will be used for a “significant amount of stock repurchases.” However, the $100 million to $200 million amount would not lower debt enough, and repurchasing shares would increase financial risk, according to Moody’s.

2nd February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental Results Break All Records

Continental AG’s most recent financial results show that the company has broken all previous records, including the one billion euro EBIT barrier. Speaking to Tyres & Accessories, Continental chairman, Manfred Wennemer, explained that the company achieved the one billion euro mark, despite the costs incurred in the partial closure of the company’s Mayfield plant.

With regard to US business, Mr Wennemer said that while the company is still in deep water, the situation is considerably better than in recent years. The Continental chairman went on to speak of his belief that this area of business will break even by the end of the year, as has been suggested before.

As far as 2005 is concerned, Mr Wennemer is confident that Continental can top this year’s impressive results. Chief financial officer, Dr Alan Hippe, demonstrated this feeling of optimism when he pointed out that company debts had dropped to less than one billion euros. The company’s share value also has the potential to increase by 40 per cent in the next two years, he added. Continental shares are currently trading at 52.50 euros.

1st February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Kumho Sets IPO Prices

Kumho will launch initial public offerings (IPO) on both the South Korean and London stock exchanges at $15.58 per share, South Korea’s Dow Jones has reported. The tyre manufacturer expects to raise approximately $400 million (£210 million) in the sale. Kumho Tire Co. is said to be selling some 25 million shares in the simultaneous IPO. “A heavy flood of orders is expected to be placed before the offer close,” Dow Jones reported.

The news follows Cooper Tire & Rubber’s early January announcement that it would buy an 11 per cent share of the company, which amounts to 7.5 million shares.

1st February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian Tyre Market Grows 8.3 per cent

The Indian tyre industry has grown at a rate of 8.3 per cent over the last decade, mainly fuelled by strong growth in the domestic car industry, according to research and markets. A new report from the analysts concludes that although the replacement market has driven the industry, the OE market has also seen robust growth over the last couple of years.

Confirming these findings, Apollo Tyres recently posted third quarter results showing a 7.74 per cent rise in net profits to £2,060,000 for the quarter ended 31 December. In response, Apollo shares were trading at 253.90 rupees, up 1.56 per cent.

The industry is highly capital intensive, requiring around 4 billion rupees to set up a radial plant with a capacity of 1.5 million tyres, and around 1.5 – 2 million to construct a crossply plant of the same capacity, research and markets reports. The Indian industry is dominated by a few main players. MRF, Apollo Tyres, JK Industries and Ceat all enjoy more than 70 per cent of the total market share.

28th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

BERU Offers Additional Two Weeks

Following the expiry of its voluntary public tender period, BERU AG has begun an additional two week acceptance period for its shareholders. The additional period will run from 28 January to 10 Febraury 2005. During this additional acceptance time, shareholders will still be able to submit their shares in exchange for 67.50 euros per share in cash.

28th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Avon Unleashes the Viper

“The new tyre range represents a major advance in sports tyre design and is the result of years of testing combined with original and innovative engineering concepts. We are proud to deliver this three-tier offering of 19 sizes to the motorcycle market and have great confidence that it will be enthusiastically received” – Avon’s motorcycle product manager, Pete McNally, can only be that enthusiastic about one thing – the Viper has finally been unleashed.

27th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper Analysis Positive

According to Deutsche Bank, Cooper Tire’s (CTB) management “sounded pretty optimistic on CTB’s growth prospects for 2005,” at a recent analyst conference.

Company representatives remain positive about industry pricing, reports the German news source, with Cooper rolling out new price increases of up to four per cent in March. New contracts that have recently been secured should also encourage 2.5 per cent growth, say analysts.

14th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Nokian Increases Share Capital

Towards the end of last year, Nokian Tyres increased its share capital by a total of 45,340 euros. The new shares are being traded on the Helsinki Stock Exchange together with the old shares. Nokian Tyres plc’s share capital now stands at 21,705,762 euros.

7th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

BorgWarner Executes Majority Takeover of BERU

BorgWarner Germany GmbH, Heidelberg, has announced that the closed share purchase agreement to purchase the majority of BERU AG’s shares, has been enforced. The announcement follows confirmation that BorgWarner Germany had agreed a share purchase agreement with The Carlyle Group and a group of family shareholders. This agreement accounted for 62.21per cent of BERU AG’s shares.

As a result, two representatives of the Carlyle Group (Mr Gregor Böhm and Mr Heinrich Rutt) and two other businessman resigned from the supervisory board.

5th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone’s Shares Fall

Bloomberg has reported that Bridgestone Corporation shares fell by up to two per cent after the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported that the company is expecting its first decline in pretax profit in four years. Bridgestone stock fell by as much as 40 yen to 1990 yen after gaining 42 per cent during the course of the last year.

The Nihon Keizai reported that the tyre manufacturer’s pre-tax profits are likely to fall by 17 per cent to 150 billion yen (£763 million) because of an increase in the price of oil and other raw materials. The newspaper did not specify where it obtained its information. “It is based on the newspaper’s own reporting,” Bridgestone’s spokeswoman Setsuko Ozaki said, declining to comment on the report.

According to Bloomberg, Bridgestone’s 2005 sales may rise 4 per cent to 2.5 trillion yen. Bridgestone may also report a record group net income of about 140 billion yen, up 30 per cent, after changing its employee pension fund system, the Nikkei newspaper said.

Last month Bridgestone said it would raise the price of its tyres in 2005 in order to protect earning from rising raw material costs. Bridgestone and Firestone branded tyres used in passenger cars, trucks and buses will rise by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent, the Tokyo-based company said on 8 December.

5th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone’s Shares Fall: Update

Deutsche Bank analysts have cast doubt on the negative predictions published in the Japanese business press. According to the market observers, reports that Bridgestone’s recurring profit is set to fall 17 per cent year-on-year may not be as accurate as they seem. Although the article cites high raw material costs and yen appreciation, it fails to take into account tyre price increases, which started being implemented in Japan last year. The analysts explained that in the last few year Bridgestone has recorded strong earnings, defying the Nikkei’s projections. As a result the bank says it will not change its earning projections or rating, adding that if the share price dips below 2000 yen this would represent “an attractive investment opportunity.”

5th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Stomil Olsztyn Becomes Michelin Polska

Michelin has announced that it has consolidated its activities in Poland and will now conduct is business under the unified name of Michelin Polska. The newly created entity also took over the activities of Stomil Olsztyn manufacturing, and Michelin Polska trade Polish media sources are reporting.

According to Poland AM news digest, the aim of the move is to unify Michelin’s structure and strengthen its image on domestic market. Michelin Polska is also responsible for operations in other countries, including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The French manufacturer became Stomil’s majority shareholder in 1995 when it purchased 51.2 per cent of the tyre producer’s shares for $105 million. Last year, the firm posted a 153 million zloty (£26.53 million) net profit on revenues of 1.55 billion zloty (£268 million).

4th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors