A total of 22,030 extra Nokian Tyres shares have been subscribed May 12th, giving an increase in share capital of 44,060 Euros. The shares, together with the old shares, will be traded on the Helsinki Exchange from tomorrow. The increase means that the number of Nokian shares is now 10,604,316 and the share capital is 21,208,632 Euros.
Pirelli shareholders have approved a merger plan aimed at simplifying the company’s structure. The plan involves merging Pirelli SpA with Pirelli & C. on the following basis: four newly issued Pirelli & C. ordinary shares for every three Pirelli SpA ordinary shares and ten newly issued Pirelli & C. savings shares for every seven Pirelli SpA savings shares.
Michelin has acquired a further 7,822,337 shares in Polish tyre maker Stomil-Olsztyn, representing 28.74 per cent of the equity. This means that Michelin now holds 98.99 per cent of the share capital and voting rights of Stomil-Olsztyn. The price paid was 46.5 Polish Zlotys per share, making the transaction worth 363.7 million Zlotys (84.8 million Euros). 38 million Euros of this was goodwill, which will be depreciated over 20 years. The acquisition, says Michelin, was part of the on-going process to optimise and simplify group structures.
Amcast Industrial Corporation has announced that it has sold Speedline, its Italian wheel subsidiary, to a European-based company. The net proceeds from the sale will be negligible. Byron O. Pond, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, said, “Speedline’s recent operating performance has had a significant, detrimental impact on Amcast’s profitability. The transaction should return the remaining Amcast businesses to positive net earnings in its third fiscal quarter.” The company also received news that the New York Stock Exchange believes the company is below the criteria for the NYSE’s continued listing standards. The company no longer meets the equity standard, which requires a listed company to have an average market capitalization of not less than $50 million over a 30 trading-day period and stockholders’ equity of not less than $50 million. The company has expected this action and is reviewing its available alternatives to assure a continuous public trading market for its common shares.
Bridgestone has announced that it is to build its third tyre plant in China at Wuxi, Jiangsu province. The plant, which will be the first one in China wholly owned by Bridgestone, will produce 8,000 car radial tyres a day for the domestic and export markets, starting from September next year. Bridgestone says that the investment totals $99 million and the company plans investments in its other factories to increase production of car, truck and bus tyres.
Quoted in an article in Tire Business, Dr. Dennis Byrne, Professor Emeritus of economics, said during the Clemson University Tire Conference that Goodyear would be forced to file for Chapter 11, saying: “I see very little reason for optimism, I think they will go belly up.” This provoked a spirited response from Goodyear, who said that, while Dr. Byrne might live in the Akron area, he has no special insights or knowledge of the company and he has not taken into account the measures taken by Goodyear to achieve a turnaround. His assertions are off the mark, said the company in a statement. This is reminiscent of the statements issued when columnist Diane Evans criticised Sam Gibara in the pages of the Akron Beacon Journal. Goodyear said then that Evans ignored any facts that did not fit in with her ideas. On the other hand, it is a fact that a year ago, DB Global Equities recommended Goodyear shares as a “strong buy” with a target price of $36. Today the price is $4. Time will show whether it is Dr. Byrne or Goodyear who is right.
Transense Technologies shares recently crashed when the company announced that it could not enter volume production of its tyre pressure sensors until late 2004. However last week saw the shares rise to 26p after Bridgewell Securities assisted the rise by clearing out a big seller at 14p on Thursday. Rumours that Michelin, the tyremaker and existing Transense licensee, is set to inject cash in return for equity are believed to be unfounded.
Financial analysts MorganStanley have upgraded Michelin from Equal Weight to Overweight, which means that the stock’s total return is expected to exceed the average of those companies reported on in the same industry, over the next 12-18 months. Michelin recently published an encouraging set of figures for 2002 and the analysts believe that the shares, currently trading near an eight-year low of 24 Euros, are undervalued.
Bridgestone has agreed to purchase two million Nokian Tyres shares from Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia for 78.34 million Euro (US$84.89 million). Representing a 18.9 per cent stake in the Scandinavian company, Bridgestone says the deal is purely a financial investment. “At this point it is a business investment. We see a lot of potential synergies and we want to build on those,” Bridgestone Europe Vice President Des Collins said, adding that Bridgestone had been in contact with Nokian management before agreeing to take the stake. His company was interested in Nokian because of its strong position in the Nordic countries and its know-how in the winter tyre market. Bridgestone agreed to purchase Nokian shares for 39.17 Euro per share. Nokian, the Nordic region’s largest tyre maker, said in a statement the transaction was conditional upon approval by the German antitrust authorities.
Bridgestone UK says that independent industry figures show that the company made market share gains in all sectors of the commercial vehicle tyre business. Figures released by the company are as follows: UK replacement market shares for van tyres have risen from 11 per cent in 2001 to 13 per cent last year, truck (22 per cent to 24 p.c.), agricultural (15 p.c. to 16 p.c) and off-road (37 p.c. to 39 p.c.). Truck tyre sales topped 300,000 pieces last year and Bridgestone claims a market share of 16 per cent for steer tyres and 26 per cent for drive tyres.
Goodyear CEO Robert Keegan told a meeting of 1,000 independent US tyre dealers that he had no “grand plan” to turn the company round. This, he said, would be achieved by listening to customers, eliminating bureaucracy, producing quality products and keeping down costs, although he did say that 2003 would be “a year of changes”, which some have taken to be a hint of further upheaval to come.
Business newspapers in France and England are commenting on a paper from the french analysts Gaetan Toulemonde and Alexis Boyer both from DB Global Equities are recommending Michelin shares as a clear “buy”. The share price – at about 31 Euros at present – has, according to the analysts, the potential to rise to 50 Euros within 12 months. Michelin is seen by them as “the BMW in the tyre industry” with strong brands and an excellent brand strategy. It is expected that Michelin will announce in a press conference at the end of February a turnover for 2002 of about 15.7 bn Euro and an operating profit of 1.1 bn Euro. For this year the company is aiming for a turnover of more than 17 bn Euro and an operating profit of more than 1.2 bn Euro. The stock capitalisation at present is 4.6 bn Euro. Michelin’s strategy has been focused for years on a significantly improved product mix. 5 years ago 60% of all tyres produced were bread and butter tyres, but this proportion has been improved. Today, standard tyres account for about 45% and shortly this will come down to 40%. Under the leadership of Edouard Michelin, in recent years the Group has drafted its profit and loss expectations very precisely and has been able to achieve its goals. It is the declared target of the management to increase the operating profit from the current 7 to 7.5% to 10% from 2005. This is easier said than done and market conditions can change overnight; for example, a possible war with Iraq could lead to much higher oil prices and higher costs for all other raw materials. On the other hand the automotive suppliers are facing in North America extremely fierce competition and the automobile companies General Motors, Ford, and especially Chrysler, are trying to get their suppliers to subsidise them again by forcing them to reduce prices. In this climate it will become very difficult to increase prices, or even to ensure that recent price increases will stick.
Polish tyre maker Stomil Olsztyn, a member of the Michelin group, reported a fourfold increase in net profits for 2002. Shares in the company rose by 3.8 per cent to reach their highest level since 1997. This was in contrast to the overall stock market performance, which fell 1.3 per cent. Stomil’s performance also boosted the share price of Goodyear-owned Debica, which closed up 3.2 per cent at a four-year high.
Concerns over liquidity, increases in oil prices and declining market shares are making analysts cautious over Goodyear’s attempts to turn the group around. Analyst Lache, from DB Global Equities New York, is expecting Goodyear to come up with an aggressive restructuring plan in March, involving moving production to lower cost areas with subsequent plant closures and giving up loss-making OE contracts. Investors may regard such plans with a pinch of salt, as Goodyear has spent $640 m so far in unsuccessful restructuring efforts. Lache estimates that Goodyear will have to reduce costs by up to another $850 m in order to be competitive
Motor tyre group Bridgestone/Firestone Maxiprest (South Africa) announced last Friday that its expected full-year earnings would not be achieved, due to pressure on margins and the effect of the stronger rand on its export trading operations. The group said it was however confident that the areas of concern are being addressed and that the group “will continue to show earnings growth”. It also said its board had decided to make provision for the “non-recoverability of a debt due by an associate company in which the group has a 40 percent equity stake”. It releases its annual results in mid-February. The group’s shares were unaffected by the release of the trading update, trading four cents higher at 1.84 rand by close on Friday, from 1.80 rand on Thursday.
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