The Chinese tyre manufacturer that wrecked Apollo Tyres’ planned acquisition of Ohio’s Cooper Tire will exercise its right to take over the US company’s largest factory, ending a bitter year-long commercial battle.
Apollo, based in Gurgaon, India, last June offered to pay $2.5bn for Cooper in a deal aimed at creating the world’s seventh-biggest tyremaker.
But the proposed acquisition – which would have been corporate India’s largest takeover of a US target – was derailed when thousands of Chinese workers at Cooper’s joint venture with state-owned Chengshan Group seized the facility in Shandong province and evicted the US company’s managers.