(Akron/Tire Review) The Freeport (Illinois) Journal-Standard reported that United Steelworkers (USW) workers at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s Freeport agricultural tyre plant will vote 21 December on a new labour agreement that could pave the way for Titan International to acquire the plant.
(Akron/Tire Review) Despite claims that it has reached an agreement with the United Steelworkers that would pave the way for the completion of its planned purchase of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co’s agricultural tyre business, Titan International has filed for its fifth extension for the deal. The new deadline set by Titan is 31 December.
Titan Tire Corporation, a subsidiary of Titan International, Inc, has reached a tentative agreement with United Steelworkers (USW) Local 745L on a new contract for workers at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s farm tyre manufacturing facility in Freeport, Illinois. The USW will schedule a ratification vote in the coming weeks. Titan Tire entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Goodyear’s North American farm tyre assets on 28 February 2005.
(Akron/Tire Review) As of 1 November, Ernest J Rodia is Titan International Inc’s new executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO). Rodia had worked for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co since 1966 in various capacities, including vice president of global engineering and manufacturing technology. He had been instrumental in Goodyear’s entry into radial tyres and directed tyre manufacturing in the tyre company’s European and Asian markets.
Rodia also worked as plant manager of Goodyear’s Kelly-Springfield/Goodyear farm tyre plant in Freeport, Illinois. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and a management degree from Harvard University.
(Akron/Tire Review) In its third quarter financial results, Titan International released the names of those who are serving on its special committee to conduct sale negotiations with One Equity Partners.
(Akron/Tire Review) Titan International saw its third quarter sales and net profits drop year-over-year. Net sales for the period came in at $102.7 million, down from last year’s $116.5 million. Profits fell to $3.6 million from $9.9 million for 2004’s third quarter.
“Third quarter is always the toughest quarter due to Titan’s various shut downs, ‘and usually during the third quarter most OEMs adjust their inventory levels,” said Titan Chairman and CEO Morry Taylor.
(Akron/Tire Review) Activist hedge fund Jana Partners has taken a strong stance against the proposed “merger” between Titan International and One Equity Partners. Calling it a move to take Titan private, Jana Partners said the $18 per share offer made by One Equity Partners was “well below the true value of the company.”
(Akron/Tire Review – Freeport Journal Standard) The $18 per share “cash merger” offer by an New York private equity firm for Titan International apparently caught the United Steelworkers (USW) well off guard, leaving the national union and its Freeport, Illinois, local scrambling for information.
(Akron/Tire Review) Titan International Inc says it has received a “cash merger offer” from a private equity group. The $18 per share offer was made, according to Titan, by One Equity Partners LLC, which is affiliated with JP Morgan Chase & Co. Based on the number of outstanding Titan shares available, the deal is likely worth about $350 million.
(Akron/Tire Review) Late yesterday morning, Titan International announced that it was extending the deadline for the completion of its planned purchase of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s agricultural tire business. The new deadline is 1 November. The previous deadline of 1 October came and went without a public announcement by the Des Moines, Iowa, tire and wheel maker. Titan said it filed for the extension on 30 September.
The extension is the third Titan has taken since it announced its plans to buy all of Goodyear’s agricultural tyre business – including its Freeport, Illinois, agricultural tyre plant – for some $100 million. As required by Goodyear’s contract with the United Steelworkers (USW) union, Titan must reach an agreement on a new contract for the plant’s 800 workers before the sale can be completed.
(Akron/Tire Review) For the second time in as many months, Titan International has extended the deadline for completion of its purchase of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. agricultural tire business. It is believed that the second extension – until 1 October – is due to slow moving negotiations between Titan and the United Steelworkers (USW).
Under terms of the contract it signed with Goodyear in 2003, any company purchasing a USW-represented Goodyear plant must negotiate a new deal with the union before the sale can be consummated.
The purchase, announced last February, includes Goodyea’rs agricultural tyre plant in Freeport, Illinois.
In Malaysia, Titan Chemicals Corpn. Bhd has won a contract from the Korea Kumho Petrochemical Co. Ltd. to supply butadiene; the raw material used to make synthetic rubber. The operation will begin in 2007 and the five-year contract is worth an estimated 500 million Ringgits (US$ 132.8 million)
(Akron/Tire Review – Freeport Journal-Standard) Following months of virtual silence about the future of Freeport’s Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant, among the region’s last major source of good-paying industrial jobs, the CEO of Titan International Corporation Wednesday drew a rhetorical line in the sand, saying that while he wants to negotiate in good faith with the local United Steelworkers of America, Titan is in no mood for protracted talks or costly demands.
(Akron/Tire Review) Titan International Inc. has announced that net sales increased $13.5 million, or 11 per cent, in the second quarter of 2005, compared to the second quarter of last year.
Net sales for 2005’s second quarter were $134.7 million, Titan reported. Additionally, income from operations was $14.3 million, which was an improvement of $1.6 million or 13 per cent in the quarter, the company said. Adjusted net income in the quarter was $7.5 million, an increase of 33 per cent over the second quarter of 2004, and debt declined $52.3 million in the quarter, marking the company’s lowest debt level since 1993, according to Titan.
(Akron/Tire Review) United Steelworkers’ (USW) international leadership has extended approval to Titan Tire Corp to start negotiations with USW Local 745 in Freeport, Illinois. This move is a significant step towards Titan’s pending purchase of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co’s North American agricultural tyre business. Under the terms of Goodyear’s contract with the USW, any purchaser must reach a new contract agreement with the union.
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