Chinese state company launches bid for Italy's Pirelli

[webfact]

Chinese state company launches bid for Italy's Pirelli
By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) — China's biggest state-owned chemical company announced plans Monday to acquire Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli, adding to a string of high-profile Chinese corporate purchases in Europe.

ChemChina said it has agreed to buy a 26.2 percent stake in Pirelli Tyre S.p.A. from its biggest shareholder, Camfin S.p.A., which is controlled by the family of Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera. The company said it would offer to buy the remaining outstanding shares.

Flush with cash from their country's boom, Chinese companies are stepping up acquisitions abroad as they diversify beyond their own economy, where growth is slowing.

Europe is seen as an attractive market for potential purchases due to the relative weakness of the euro right now and what Chinese companies see as less political resistance to large deals there than they might face in the United States.

Chemchina, also known as China National Chemical Corp., is one of China's biggest industrial companies, with businesses in petrochemicals, oil processing, agricultural chemicals, rubber products and chemical equipment.

The Beijing-based company, which has its own tire manufacturing operation, said it would support the growth and expansion of Pirelli, the world's fifth-largest tire supplier.

The deal reflects ChemChina's unusual status as a state-owned Chinese company that has made ambitious acquisitions abroad outside the finance and natural resources industries.

In 2011, its unit China National Bluestar closed the biggest Chinese acquisition in Europe to that point, paying $2 billion for Norway-based chemical producer Elkem.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-23

[Publicus]

The US government is firm about CCP state owned corporations buying into privately owned assets in the US. A number of PRChina private corporations have bought up or into US founded and owned companies, such as Smithfield Foods, but the US Treasury Foreign Assets Control Board sits on this policy pretty strictly.

For Italy this deal is a perfect match of state owned corporations that are incompetent, inefficient, corrupt, top heavy, unproductive, detrimental to all good corporate practice and principles, an overall negative to the economy.

The Boyz in Beijing meanwhile know they have to export capital because all they've done so far is to import it so it's piling up and causing troubles for the rmb, the capital accounts, current accounts and the like.

Lose-lose for Italy and China.

[eddie61]

Mr Pirelli,

Sell this company to the Chinamen, and use Michelins for your Ferrari next time.

Everybody else will..................

[maidee]

ah... how nice to see that asian countries can buy up anything in other countries

but the favor is not returned to farangs in those asian countries

[Sviss Geez]

ah... how nice to see that asian countries can buy up anything in other countries

but the favor is not returned to farangs in those asian countries

What are you talking about? If foreigners want to buy an interest in any Asian listed company there is nothing to stop them.

[chickenslegs]

Pilleri eh!

The Chinese could not have chosen a more difficult company to pronounce?

[MilesofSmiles]

ah... how nice to see that asian countries can buy up anything in other countries

but the favor is not returned to farangs in those asian countries

The populace of most Asian nations can compete on fair terms, not here.

[MJP]

Will they keep the Pilleri Calendar?

[neverdie]

Will they keep the Pilleri Calendar?

Yes but the print quality will diminish by 80% . ?

[Srikcir]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

The US government is firm about CCP state owned corporations buying into privately owned assets in the US. A number of PRChina private corporations have bought up or into US founded and owned companies, such as Smithfield Foods, but the US Treasury Foreign Assets Control Board sits on this policy pretty strictly.

For Italy this deal is a perfect match of state owned corporations that are incompetent, inefficient, corrupt, top heavy, unproductive, detrimental to all good corporate practice and principles, an overall negative to the economy.

The Boyz in Beijing meanwhile know they have to export capital because all they've done so far is to import it so it's piling up and causing troubles for the rmb, the capital accounts, current accounts and the like.

Lose-lose for Italy and China.

American corporations are prohibited from purchasing assets in China, especially when it concerns technology and anything deemed to be of resource security matter. Likewise in the US. But generally, the U.S. door is wide open to Chinese investments, especially in real estate. Only in rare cases have political opposition and national security concerns sunk proposed transactions. The most infamous ones include the failed attempt to buy Unocal by Cnooc, a Chinese state-owned energy giant, in 2005, and the aborted deal by Huawei, China’s leading telecom equipment maker, to purchase 3Com in 2008.

The biggest barrier to any Chinese company, whether state-owned (the US does not have state-owned companies) or truly privately-owned, in acquiring US assets is the lack of local knowledge, management skills, and sophistication among Chinese investors. Because the US is an open capitalistic society, it has a great many laws requiring transparency and accountability in acqusitions to protect shareholders, especially concerning US publicly-owned companies. When it comes to a Chinese state-owned company interested in US acquisitions, the Chinese government is very resistant to providing full disclosure to US regulators for fear of giving up state secrets.

[rotary]

Time to change the brand of tires I have been buying looks like

[Basil B]

The US government is firm about CCP state owned corporations buying into privately owned assets in the US. A number of PRChina private corporations have bought up or into US founded and owned companies, such as Smithfield Foods, but the US Treasury Foreign Assets Control Board sits on this policy pretty strictly.

For Italy this deal is a perfect match of state owned corporations that are incompetent, inefficient, corrupt, top heavy, unproductive, detrimental to all good corporate practice and principles, an overall negative to the economy.

The Boyz in Beijing meanwhile know they have to export capital because all they've done so far is to import it so it's piling up and causing troubles for the rmb, the capital accounts, current accounts and the like.

Lose-lose for Italy and China.

Not a problem in the UK, most of our viable companies have already been bought up and asset striped by the yank's years ago...