With the careful rearrangement of a couple of letters, the Vianor tyre retail network gains a new identity in Russia. Nokian Tyres reports that Russia’s largest network of tyre centres will henceforth operate under the name Ivanor. The new name accompanies a change of ownership, with Tatneft acquiring a 100% stake in Nokian’s Russian business. Rights to the Vianor and N-Tyre trademarks remain with Nokian Tyres.
Nokian Tyres reports that it has received the sale price of 285 million euros from PJSC Tatneft for the sale of its operations in Russia. The total permissible transaction price defined by the Russian Governmental Commission was 23,050 million rubles. Now there are just “registration formalities” before the transaction completes and Nokian Tyres’ operations in Russia therefore end.
PJSC Tatneft reports that the Russian Governmental Commission on Monitoring Foreign Investments has approved Tatneft’s purchase of Nokian Tyres plc’s operations in Russia, a deal that was announced on 28 October 2022. That much was expected, some would say overdue. However, Nokian Tyres reports that Tatneft will only be paying around 286 million euros for company’s high-tech St. Petersburg factory and other local assets.
Toward the end of December 2022, we reported that Tatneft had applied for FAS approval to buy the Nokian Tyres St. Petersburg factory. That deal, which is yet to be completed, centred on “the acquisition of 100 per cent of “Nokian Tyres LLC, Hakka Invest LLC and Nokian Shina LLC from Nokian Tyres” for just over 400 million euros. Around the same time, the Russian national patenting body, Rospatent, reported that Nokian Tyres LLC, which operates Nokian’s Russian tyre for the Finnish tyremaker, had filed applications for the registration of new trademarks.
Anyone listening to the Nokian Tyres conference call on Tuesday in the hope of gaining insights into negotiations with Tatneft were sorely disappointed. More than 3 months after Nokian announced the sale of its Russian operations for around 400 million euros, fundamental aspects of the deal are still completely opaque. Jukka Moisio, president and CEO of Nokian Tyres, brought no clarity to the subject.
Tatneft, the firm seeking to acquire the Nokian Tyres operation in Russia, has purchased Uzbekhistan’s only tyre maker, Birinchi rezinotexnika zavodi. Former majority owner Uzkimyosanoat JSC reports that Tatneft paid US$80 million for a 100% shareholding in the tyre maker. Tatneft also takes over credit obligations and debts equal to $153 million.
Tatneft has signed an agreement with JSC Uzkimyosanoat to purchase Uzbekistan tyre manufacturer Birinchi Rezinotexnika Zavodi (BRZ) LLC. According to the Interfax news agency, Tatneft will hold 100 per cent of the enterprise’s shares following the deal.
Nokian Tyres plc has agreed to sell its Russian operations to Tatneft PJSC for approximately 400 million euros. The precise final purchase price will be affected by factors including net cash, working capital adjustment and foreign exchange rates. Confirming the news, Tatneft issued a one-paragraph statement saying the deal includes the plant in the city of Vsevolozhsk, in the region of Leningrad and that “the closing of the transaction and the purchase of assets is subject to a number of conditions, including obtaining approvals in accordance with Russian law.”
Manufacturing equipment is being installed within the KamaTyresKZ joint venture tyre plant in Kazakhstan ahead of the facility’s commissioning with an initial capacity to produce 3 million car tyres and 500,000 truck tyres annually. A second project phase will add capacities
for rubber products such as conveyer belts, while agricultural tyres will join the production programme in the third phase.
The tragedy of war always has repercussions. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February is no exception. With reports of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of people already displaced, the human cost is incalculable. While blood is being spilt in Ukraine at a horrifying rate, this war is being fought on at least three fronts: military, electronic and financial. The human cost of the military dimension is beyond the scope of this publication. Likewise, cyber-warfare is probably a bridge too far (unless we are talking about vehicle cyber security, which is of increasing importance right down to the aftermarket garage level – see pages 16 to 17 of our forthcoming March edition for more on this). The economic cost of the war in Ukraine, however, will have an inevitable impact on European tyre production directly due to conflict and indirectly due to logistics and the impact of sanctions.
Russian oil and gas company Tatneft and Kazakhstani state-owned oil and gas company KazMunayGas have officially commenced a joint venture to produce butadiene rubbers with the signing of a corporate agreement by Nail Maganov, general director of Tafnet, and Alik Aidarbayev, management board chairman of KazMunayGas. The agreement follows the signing of an agreement earlier this year that set out the basic terms of the project as well as a roadmap for its implementation, a framework agreement and an agreement on an action plan for cooperation.
Work on Tatneft’s joint venture tyre factory in Saran, Kazakhstan began several months ago, and the project has now taken a further step forward with the signing of a financial lease agreement aiding the purchase of modern, automated tyre production equipment for the plant.
Russia’s Tatneft Group is gearing up to offer ATV tyres under its Kama tyre brand. The company announced this week that its Nizhnekamskshina factory has commenced production of an experimental size 25×8-12 tyre, the Kama Quadro ATM, and intends to begin volume manufacture before the end of this year.
Nokian Tyres
Tatneft
BRZ
Jorono; Pixabay