Current owner of Continental plant in Russia buys assets of Cordiant

As a result of the new transaction, S8 Capital Group will become one of the top three tire manufacturers in Russia in terms of capacity.

S8 Capital Group recently bought a plant of the German tire company Continental, which is located in Kaluga, as well as a distribution company. As part of the deal, the Russian holding became the owner of one of the tire brands — it is called Gislaved. He has now decided to buy other tire assets, including those owned by Russian tire manufacturer Cordiant.

>According to Kommersant, S8 Capital closed a deal to buy 100% of the shares of Kordiant JSC, its amount was not disclosed. Now the holding has added to its portfolio production sites located in Yaroslavl and Omsk (we are talking about three plants), another R & D center «Intyre», as well as an equipment repair station. As a result of the transaction, Cordiant, Tunga and Tyrex joined the list of holding brands.

According to Torsten Schubert, Managing Director of the diversified holding S8 Capital, the acquisition of Kordiant JSC will enable the Group in the near future «to offer the market a wide product line of passenger, light truck and truck tires: from economy to premium segment.»

According to the publication, in 2020 Cordiant accounted for 9.6% of the Russian passenger rubber market. In the light truck tire segment, it accounted for 11.1% of total sales; in the market of solid steel cord truck tires, the share was 17.4%, and among combined truck tires — 31.8%.

A Kommersant source in the industry said that since then the situation in the Russian Federation has changed, including against the backdrop of the current crisis. According to him, the manufacturer Cordiant could increase its shares in the segments, but do not forget that the market has now intensified competition with products imported from China, the volume of which has increased significantly.

According to automotive expert Vladimir Bespalov, now the tire market in the Russian Federation can be called promising both because of access to artificial rubber and because of the potential capacity of the primary market with a large secondary segment. The analyst also believes that it is worth considering the prospects for exports, as the production of cars will be activated in a number of CIS countries.

It should be noted that as a result of the new deal, the S8 Capital Group is likely to enter the top three in terms of capacity among tire manufacturers in the Russian Federation. So, the former Continental plant produced up to 4 million tires per year (you can increase the volume to 16 million tires). The total annual capacity of Cordiant enterprises is 9.7 million copies (passenger, light truck and truck tires). S8 Capital estimated the total capacity of its plants at almost 14 million tires per year.

According to the publication, Tatneft, which previously acquired the Nokian plant (located in the capacities are designed to produce 17.5 million tires per year, while Nizhnekamskshina (a former asset of Tatneft) has a figure of 15 million, the portfolio includes passenger, light truck and truck tires.