18th
• 1998-201
COMMENT: Don't get fooled again!
...........................................................................................Page
4
Dainese appoint ex Ducati man ........................................................................................................Page 9
Win a ride along Route 66 with Michelin & Parts Europe ......................................Page 10
Pirelli Metzeler to come
under Chinese ownership
HE iconic 143 year old Italian
Pirelli tyre brand and its
German Metzeler specialist
motorcycle tyre subsidiary are
being purchased in a complex 7
billion euro deal by the giant China
National Chemical Corp
(ChemChina).
ChemChina will become the majority
owner of the world's fifth largest tyre
maker, with 67 year old Marco Tronchetti
Provera staying on as Chief Executive for
another 5 years.
ChemChina is a state-owned Chinese
chemical company whose China
National Tire & Rubber (CNTR) subsidiary
would initially purchase the 26 percent
stake in Pirelli held by CamFin, its current
largest shareholder, for € billion.
1.7
Initial bridging finance is being
provided by a consortium of Western
banks headed up by JP Morgan; CamFin
is 50 percent owned by Russian oil
company Rosneft. Once the initial stage
of the deal has passed regulatory hurdles
by the summer, a mandatory tender offer
for Pirelli's remaining share capital will
follow.
ChemChina has a strong position as
an industrial tyre maker in China through
four active subsidiaries altogether,
including Aeolus as well as CNTR. The
T
sprawling Bejing based group has some
140,000 employees and nine listed
business units whose shares trade on the
Shanghai or Shenzen stock exchanges.
Founded by Mr Ren Jianxin, who is
known as one of China's "merger
kings", ChinaChem had previously
expressed interest in acquiring Ohiobased Cooper Tire and Rubber, owner of
British manufacturer Avon Tyres.
The ChinaChem-Pirelli deal has sent
shockwaves around the global tyre
industry, and as this edition of
International Dealer News went to press,
Tronchetti Provera was firefighting
rumours that Japanese giant
Bridgestone was contemplating a rival
bid.
Speaking at an Italian Parliamentary
hearing in April, Tronchetti Provera
accepted that a counterbid for Pirelli was
always a possibility, but that the terms of
the Chinese deal are "bulletproof". He
has been adamant that this is the right
deal at the right time for Pirelli, with other
opportunities having been rejected.
Since the initial announcement was
made in March, ChemChina has been
working to secure additional tranches of
Pirelli shares, and following an April
agreement to buy the 1.6 percent of
Pirelli that was owned by Edizione (the
private investment giant owned by the
Benetton family) ChinaChem had
increased its effective stake in Pirelli to
over 30 percent already.
Since the initial announcement Ren
Jianxin has stated that he anticipates a
re-listing for Pirelli in Italy at some stage
and that he expects to see the workforce
increase rather than contract. He is
quoted as stating that the deal is about
expanding scale and increasing market
share. "That means we will need more
people to join; there will not be
redundancies," he said, adding that he
plans to invite Pirelli's union members to
visit China.
The bid will be launched by a vehicle
controlled by the Chinese group and
part-owned by Camfin investors, who
include Tronchetti, Italian banks
UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, and
Russia's Rosneft.
ChemChina, which operates six
different business segments, had total
revenue of about 300 billion yuan
($48.27 billion) in 2014.
5
YEAR
1998-20
1
• 1998-201
1998-20
1
5•
5
5•
APR/MAY 2015
ISSUE #124
Self-tinting
AGVisor
'Paris Show',
December 2015
STATZONE EXHAUST
Pages
6-7
German March Registrations
30,000
+12.47%
2014
2015
25,000
+14.28%
GUIDE
Pages 34-35
21,889
19,153
10,000
25,302
UNITS
15,000
28,456
20,000
NEwS ROOM 6-19, 40
TRADEZONE 36
INDEX 38