Apollo misses talks with Chinese staff to negotiate deadlock on Cooper's acquisition

Apollo’s acquisition of Cooper’s acquisition of the Cobb’s Chengshan Tyre Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Cobalin Chengshan”) Chinese employees continued to stir up their strikes .

On July 12, 2013, Apollo Tyres Ltd (ApolloTYR) (hereinafter referred to as "Apollo") and Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: CTB) (hereinafter referred to as "" Cooper's "Palladium" and the Chengshan Group agreed to hold a presidential meeting. Due to the absence of Apollo's president, Cooper insisted on advancing the acquisition and failed. Liang Yiting, head of the Cooper Chengdu Chengshan Union, told reporters on the phone, "We will continue our strike."

On June 12, 2013, Apollo and Cooper announced that the merger agreement between the two companies had been finalized. Under the agreement, Apollo Tire will acquire Cooper Tire in cash through its wholly-owned subsidiary, with a total transaction value of approximately US$2.5 billion. The boards of the two companies have unanimously approved the agreement.

However, after this agreement, the agreement was met with resistance from Cooper's Chengshan Union. On June 21st, Cooper Chengshan employees went on strike to protest Apollo Tire's purchase of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. of the United States.

On June 27, the strike achieved breakthrough results. After representatives of the Cooper Chengshan Union and Cooper senior executives reached an agreement after two rounds of negotiations, the United States agreed to negotiate with the relevant parties on the termination of the Apollo merger and reply within 15 days (that is, before July 12th). On June 28, Cooper Chengshan employees resumed work.

The first round of negotiations ended in failure: Zhan Enping, a cross-cultural management expert from Shanghai University’s MBA Academic Director, felt that he was mistaken in Apollo. "As a new owner, Apollo should take the initiative to respond to the doubts of the acquiree and come up with specific development plans, and clearly define the disposal plan for existing employees, and take the initiative to appease the acquiree. Let them understand that this is a strategy, not conspiracy."

Cooper unilateral mediation

“The current management team of Cooper will continue to lead Cooper, and facilities around the world will continue to operate.” Cooper said at the same time that the acquisition agreement was announced. Afterwards, the company was worried about China's theory of the Cooper Chengshan Union as a production base, Apollo's lack of investment capacity, and the request for strikes by Cooper Chengshan employees. Cooper responded to the US official website at the first time.

"Apollo intends to retain Cooper's existing global production facilities. At present, there is no plan to transfer manufacturing outsourcing from North America. At the same time, Apollo also intends to retain Cooper's existing network and employees, and expands on this basis to meet the requirements. Greater demand for the combined company.” Cooper said on its official website.

At the same time, Cooper gave the reason for insisting on the merger: the merger will create more opportunities for the employees and suppliers of the two companies and also provide consumers with more choices. The strong alliance between Apollo and Cooper will span four continents and will occupy a favorable competitive position in the United States, Europe and China, the world's three largest tire markets. It will also become a rapidly growing developing market. leader. At the same time, the combined company will have a diverse and balanced product portfolio and be recognized for its quality and performance.

For the acquirer, Cooper also believes that Apollo has the ability to integrate. “Apollo has a successful history of growth through its own acquisitions and acquisitions. Apollo is an experienced acquirer and has successfully integrated other companies, including the Dutch brand Frede tire acquired in 2009 (vredestein). ."

Cooper's official website also shows that: The Cooper board of directors passed the Apollo acquisition, mainly due to two considerations. From the business perspective, after the merger, Cooper and Apollo will become the world’s seventh-largest tire manufacturer. Now Cooper is ranked 11th in the world. Second, the board of directors thinks Apollo’s prices are very attractive. According to the terms of the agreement, Cooper Tire's shareholders will receive $35 per share in cash, a 40% premium over Cooper Tire's weighted average share price over the past 30 trading days. Roy Armes, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd., said: “The transaction is attractive to Cooper because it is in the best interests of Cooper shareholders and benefits our customers and employees. ."

Wrong is not "snapping elephant"

The United States has given a reply but it has not been able to satisfy the workers. "There is still insisting on mergers and acquisitions." Mr. Liang emphasized on the phone, with some indignation in his tone.

Liang believes that the United States not only does not respect trade unions at all, but also allows Apollo to acquire 100% of its debts. "Everyone can see the problem of mergers and acquisitions. We have to earn money for companies to pay back."

According to the disclosed information, Apollo’s acquisition of Cooper requires 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, of which Apollo has borrowed 450 million U.S. dollars from the bank, and Cooper Tire has raised 2.1 billion U.S. dollars through its own bond issuance and bank loans. Apollo’s market capitalization was only US$600 million, and the acquisition involved capital of US$2.5 billion. The high leverage ratio has caused widespread doubt in the industry and financial investment industry.

In addition, after the completion of this transaction, Apollo's annual financing costs exceed 80 million US dollars; After the acquisition of Cooper Tire new debt 1.9 billion US dollars, the annual financing cost of 150 million to 200 million US dollars, and the last 5 years Cooper Tire Year The average pre-tax profit is only 100 million U.S. dollars. It also means that the annual profit of the merged enterprise is not enough to pay high interest, and it is even less likely to be used for production and operation investment. Cooper Chengshan is worried that such a high debt purchase may result in tight corporate funds, difficulties in operations, corporate closures, and layoffs of employees. The tangible and intangible assets used by the company for collateral will also be drained and evaporated.

"From the perspective of international mergers and acquisitions, size is not the main reason affecting the success or failure of mergers and acquisitions." Zhuang Enping believes that if Geely Automobile has also acquired VOLVO, and Lenovo has also acquired IBM's PC business, the key is whether the merger can be integrated well. "Transnational mergers and acquisitions are generally not a failure in capital and technology. The key is cross-cultural management capabilities. Apollo clearly has insufficient experience in this area. The ambiguity in the East approach cannot solve the problem," Zhuang Enping said.

According to Chen Wenkai, a specialist in the domestic spare parts sector and the CEO of Gasgoo.com, “From the point of view of both parties, Cooper is focused on the SUV while Apollo's products are concentrated on the low end. The two sides also have some complementarity on the network, but India is also A low-cost production country does not rule out that Apollo will shift its main production focus to India. It is no wonder that Cooper's resistance to the mountain is not quelled and how Apollo should come up with a clear statement.

The seventh in the world is not on paper

Informed sources disclosed that before the tripartite presidential meeting was held, representatives of the Cooper Chengshan Union had communicated with Cooper. Cooper asked Cooper employees to stop the strike. The Cooper Union of Tokuyama asked that Cooper should stop this time. Acquisition. As the demands of both parties are far from each other, the communication between labor unions and Cooper has been unhappy.

The tripartite presidential talks held last Wednesday still have no progress, and the parties do not make concessions. The person familiar with the matter disclosed that as a Sino-foreign joint venture, the Chengshan Group had preferential share purchase rights in the face of mergers and acquisitions, and Chengshan Group did propose a plan to buy back 51% of the shares of Cooper Chengshan’s U.S. side, but it took too long. Involved in capital, this proposal did not reach substantive progress in the three-party presidential talks.

"China's request to exercise its right of first-order purchase is because there is a lesson from it," said Zhuang Enping. Chengshan Group is well-known in the domestic tire industry and is a Chinese company that has won the Triple Crown of "China Famous Brand", "China Top Brand", and "Quality First Brand". Its major businesses include sales revenue, profits and taxes, and export earnings. For many years, the index ranks the forefront of the industry. At the beginning of 2006, Chengshan Group established a joint venture with the second largest US tire company and the world’s eighth US Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd., taking advantage of Ganden as a supporting role, and looking forward to relying on foreign technology. Management, market and other factors will make the tire industry bigger and stronger.

However, the effect is not as expected, and the joint venture has not been smooth. Since the establishment of the joint venture company for more than seven years, it has been in a state of constant running-in. The differences in the culture, values, business methods and lifestyles of both parties have become the bottleneck restricting the development of the company. Cooper made a joint venture seven years and paid a heavy price. Because the culture broke through in the bumps, the accumulated profit before tax for the first 4 years was 77.24 million US dollars (the annual profit of the Chinese Chengshan Tire before the joint venture was more than 29.26 million US dollars), and the company changed to five general managers in 4 years; Performance was improved and the profit before tax was US$217.73 million.

At present, it is the best time for Cooper to establish a joint venture with Yamada for eight years. It has become the largest and best company among the eight factories in Cooper's tire family. At this time, it was acquired and Cooper Chengshan Union was worried about the recurrence of the old matter.

Although the joint venture plan is full of confidence that it will reach the seventh place in the world, Hankook Tire , currently ranked seventh, has formulated an ambitious development plan. Currently, Hankook Tire ranks fifth in sales worldwide and ranks seventh in sales worldwide. According to the 2015 plan announced by Hankook Tire, Hankook plans to sell in 2015 with the addition of two factories and high-end plans in 2013. The amount will also enter the fifth place in the world. After Apollo’s acquisition of Cooper, how to achieve its seventh global plan, this has to give a clear explanation, not ambiguity.

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