Purchases of rubber moulders and tyre firms

Purchases of rubber moulders and tyre firmsUS firm Titan International has bought 56% shares of Australia-based OTR tyre company Planet Corporation Group while QSR has purchased Lexington Precision.
Titan’s purchase of US$22.9 million will make Planet a subsidiary of its newly established mining business venture, Titan Mining Services. Planet, which includes National Tyres, Acme Wheel and Resource Tyre & Choice Tyre Wholesalers generated over US$75 million sales in the past 12 months from its clients from the mining, agriculture, construction and earth moving industries and approximately US$10 million of EBITDA in 2011.
Quality Synthetic Rubber (QSR), a provider of custom moulded synthetic rubber components and a portfolio company of Blue Point Capital Partners, has been sold to Lexington Precision, a portfolio company of Industrial Growth Partners (IGP).
Both QSR and Lexington shares something in common since QSR has operations in the US and China, serves the medical and electrical markets with its moulded elastomeric components for use in a broad range of medical and electrical connector applications. Meanwhile, US-based Lexington also serves the medical and automotive markets with its rubber components that include seals used in laparoscopic surgical devices and components for medication delivery systems; and automotive insulators used in automobile ignition systems.
Germany-based ContiTech has made the largest acquisition in its history of US firm Parker Hannifin’s automotive air conditioning portion of its mobile climate systems division for an undisclosed price. The automotive air conditioning business manufactures components for light vehicles; the parts include hose and tube assemblies, accumulators, receiver dryers and oil coolant assemblies. The products are primarily rubber and aluminium, but include some composites. The business operates at five global manufacturing sites in Mexico, Czech Republic, South Korea and China. The acquired business has annual sales of US$140 million and 1,000 employees. The mobile and hose portions of the mobile climate systems division are not part of the transaction. ContiTech is a global supplier of elastomer products in the non-tyre rubber sector and a specialist for rubber technology in the non-tyre rubber sector. (PRA)