Titan International’s Board of Directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of US$.005 (one half cent) per common share for the first quarter of 2013. The cash dividend is payable Monday 15 April 2013 to stockholders of record on Thursday 28 March 2013.
On 1 March, Titan International announced its intention to offer through a private placement, subject to market and other conditions, US$275 million aggregate principal amount of its 7.875 per cent Senior Secured Notes due 2017. The tyre maker says it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay a portion of the existing indebtedness of certain of its indirect subsidiaries under the European credit facilities assumed as part of its acquisition of Titan Europe Plc in the fourth quarter of 2012. Any remaining net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include financing potential future acquisitions and the repayment of other existing obligations.
Recently the French government was told it can keep its “so-called workers” at Goodyear’s slated-for-closure Amiens Nord factory, but news out of France suggests these workers may be offered an opportunity to keep their jobs, independently of Titan International or anyone else. On 26 February the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) union proposed forming a workers’ holding company, making the approximately 1,250 plant workers shareholders in the Amiens Nord operation.
Maurice Taylor may not be cut out for a high level diplomatic posting, but the man certainly knows how to run a profitable company. In the 2012 financial year Titan International increased its sales 22.4 per cent US$1,820.7 million – a record for the company. Gross profit for the year grew 26.7 per cent $294.1 million, or 16.2 per cent of net sales, as compared to $232.1 million, or 15.6 per cent of net sales in 2011. Income from operations in the current year was $174.7 million, compared to $132.2 million in 2011, an increase of 32.2 percent, while net income for year-end 2012 was $95.6 million, compared to $58.2 million in 2011, an increase of 64.3 per cent.
The verbal fisticuffs between Titan International’s Maurice Taylor and France’s minister of industrial renewal Arnaud Montebourg, first leaked to the world by financial newspaper Les Échos on 19 February, has been played down by the US Department of State. During the department’s daily press briefing on 21 February, Taylor’s disparaging comments regarding the French work ethic were broached and spokesperson Victoria Nuland asked whether the US administration considers investing in France any more (or less) difficult than investing in other European countries.
Maurice Taylor’s run for the Republican Party nomination in the US presidential election of 1996 ended in failure, and following recent events it is also unlikely the party will keep him in mind as a future Secretary of State. As expected, French industry minister Arnaud Montebourg has responded to the Titan boss’s strongly-worded letter with a few choice comments of his own.
The sword of Damocles has hung over Goodyear’s production site in Amiens, France for years now. Most recently, in 2009 the American tyre maker openly discussed plans to end the production of passenger car tyres in Amiens-Nord; the site suffered from “uncompetitive costs,” the company said. Two years ago Goodyear attempted to emulate the deal it made in Latin America and sell the Amiens plant’s agricultural tyre production to Titan International. But all plans for the Titan-Goodyear deal collapsed at the end of 2011. Titan chairman and CEO Maurice Taylor pulled the ripcord and withdrew from Europe, visibly frustrated by the union representatives in Amiens.
Titan International has announced several personnel changes resulting from its acquisition of Titan Europe. Cecilia LaManna will serve as the CEO of ITM, the company’s design and assembly centre for complete undercarriages and side frames in Europe. And Chris Akers will head up the entire Titan Europe wheel group; Akers will report to Titan Wheel’s president, Dave Salen.
Now in its 60th year of trading, independent wholesaler R H Claydon aims to offer an extensive product portfolio designed to meet the needs of discerning tyre distributors, service providers and end users in the UK and Ireland markets. According to business development and purchasing director John Parker, the agricultural or (off-highway) market is where RH Claydon does best and therefore is the area that the industry judges to be the company’s “core sphere of expertise.”
In his guidance for next year, Titan International’s Maurice Taylor bragged that 2012 delivered “record revenue, net income, gross margins, operation margins – just everything.” He also boasted about his golf handicap. Perhaps news of the company’s vitality and Taylor’s prowess on the green will provide some comfort to the 60 or so workers reported to have been laid off at Titan Tire’s Freeport, Illinois factory in the US. According to local newspaper the Journal Standard, the Titan International subsidiary confirmed on 17 December that employee lay-offs had occurred; while the Journal Standard says Titan officials were “unavailable for comment”, it writes that David Young, executive director of the Northwest Illinois Development Alliance, attributes the job cuts to a seasonal reduction in demand.
Titan International’s Board of Directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of US$.005 (one half cent) per common share for the fourth quarter of 2012. The cash dividend is payable 15 January 2013 to stockholders of record on 31 December 2012.
Richard Rose has been appointed VP of sales and marketing at Titan International, the company’s board of directors announced. The appointment is effective 1 November 2012.
Titan International reported on 5 October that it has received 87.24 per cent acceptance levels for its Titan Europe plc share offer, making the offer “unconditional in all respects.” The offer will remain open until 19 October. The newly issued Titan International shares will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on or around that date.
On 14 September, Titan International announced the proposed issue of up to 6,240,833 new Titan International common shares to Titan Europe shareholders in connection with Titan International’s offer for Titan Europe plc. Under Titan International’s offer, Titan Europe shareholders will receive one new share of Titan International common stock for every 11 Titan Europe shares held. Based on the closing exchange rate of £1=$1.6016 and the closing stock price of Titan International common stock of $20.03 on September 13, 2012, this offer values each Titan Europe share at approximately 113.36 pence and Titan Europe’s fully diluted share capital at approximately £104.8 million. The Titan International offer represents a premium of approximately 15.1 per cent to the closing price of 111.25 pence per Titan Europe share on September 13, 2012.
Agricultural customers in the US had the chance to get up close to Titan Tire and Alliance Tire Group’s latest offerings at the Farm Progress 2012 Show in Iowa this week, reports Tire Review. New on the scene from ATG are the Galaxy Muddy Buddy, the Alliance 354 Radial R1-W in increased flexion size IF380/90R46, and the Alliance 354 in increased flexion size IF480/80R50; Titan displayed the Goodyear IF Ultra Sprayer and the Goodyear IF DT830.
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