Goodyear Completes Purchase of Slovenia's Sava Tires

Goodyear Completes Purchase of Slovenia’s Sava Tires

Goodyear Tire & Rubber is now full owner of Sava Tires d.o.o., a tire manufacturing company in Kranj, Slovenia, which the company has had a 60 percent stake in since 1998. In 2002, the company bought an additional 20 percent. This 80 percent had previously been transferred to Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe.

AKRON, OH — Goodyear Tire & Rubber is now full owner of Sava Tires d.o.o., a tire manufacturing company in Kranj, Slovenia, which the company has had a 60 percent stake in since 1998. In 2002, the company bought an additional 20 percent. This 80 percent had previously been transferred to Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe.

The company set out in April of this year to acquire the remainder of the business to further strengthen its position in the central and eastern European markets. Sava Tires exports more than 80 percent of its production. The majority of its exports go to other European countries.

The move, according to Goodyear Chairman and CEO Robert Keegan, strengthens the company’s position as the second-largest tiremaker in Europe and enhances its low-cost sourcing capabilities.

After exercising its call option to purchase the remaining 20 percent of Sava Tires owned by Slovenia’s Sava d.d. for approximately $52 million, Goodyear will transfer it to the company’s 75 percent-owned Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe affiliate.

For more information about Goodyear, go to: www.goodyear.com.

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