Goodyear to Buy TC Debica

Tire manufacturer Goodyear announced yesterday it has made an offer to buy "any and all outstanding shares" of the Polish tire manufacturer Debica, at a price of 59.52 PLN per share ($21.12). The offer was for the rest of the shares Goodyear does not already own: 34.01 percent.

Goodyear has submitted on Tuesday its offer to the Polish Financial Supervision Commission and the Warsaw Stock Exchange and is now awaiting the acceptance period for the offer, which will begin on October 12 and end on November 10.

According to Goodyear, the buy will be funded by using the company's cash and available credit. The money to be paid for the acquisition amounts to about $98 million. UniCredit CAIB Poland will act as an intermediary for the offer.

Tire Company Debica is already majority-owned by Goodyear. The latter acquired its first shares in the Polish manufacturer in December 1995, with Debica becoming a contract manufacturer for Goodyear (about 80 percent of the tires made in Poland are sold to Goodyear). In March 2008, another 6.12 percent of Debica was acquired by Goodyear.

In the memorandum signed then, Goodyear stated that it will submit, in at most 18 months time, a takeover bid for the remaining shares of the company.

The end of Debica as a standalone company comes exactly 70 years after the first tire rolled off the manufacturing line, in March 1939. The company will be in good hands, however, as Goodyear is one of the biggest tire manufacturers out there. It owns facilities in 25 countries and employs roughly 70,000 people.