DOUBLESTAR SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED KUMHO TIRE
According to the news Qingdao Doublestar published, DOUBLESTAR and its subsidiary XINGWEI(Korea) sign with KUMHO tire and its creditor : Korea Development Bank(KDB) about subscription agreement and stock holder agreement, XINGWEI will invest 646.3 billion won at the price of 5000 won per share to subscribe 129,267,129 common share of KUMHO tire, which will take up 45% of total stock, DOUBLESTAR will be majority shareholder of KUMHO tire.
According to 2017 global tire industry statistical data, sales amount of KUMHO tire is 2.4 billion dollar, that of DOUBLESTAR is 1.06 billion dollar, plus DOUBLESTAR reorganize HENGYU and Shiyan factory expansion,the manual sales amount of DOUBLESTAR will be 3.5 billion dollar,which will be more than previous No. 1: ZHONGCE,DOUBLESTAR will be new No. 1 of Chinese tire manufacturer, meanwhile,DOUBLESTAR will be the first Chinese factory ranging No.9 in the world market. The world tire industry structure will be changed from then on, it will be unprecedented big event. Nobody can imagine this event really becomes true.
With 58 years, KUMHO tire is the second largest tire manufacturer in Korea, ranking No.14 in global market, DOUBLESTAR ranking No.34 in the world. The production capacity of KUMHO is 60 million pieces, with 8 factory worldwide. This cross border merger case was previously blocked by political factor, union sabotage etc, which is full of twists and turns.
In 2016, DOUBLESTAR start to negotiate with KUMHO for merger,during that time,stopped by THAAD crisis,opposed by unions and politicians,this merger case was sentenced to be end with failure on September of 2017.
KUMHO never give up and imitatively come to negotiate with DOUBLESTAR, finally this merger come back to life by efforts from both parties.
One day before signing subscription agreement,CEO of DOUBLESTAR Mr Chai Yongsen was invited to take part in Qingdao international rubber wheel exhibition, at the opening ceremony, Chairman Chai relax and calm and humbly communicate with specialist, and he is very confident and self-assured.
Actually, on 2nd March of 2018, DOUBLESTAR reach an agreement with KDB, head of KUMHO tire creditors, DOUBLESTAR will hold 45% of KUMHO stock by increasing capital, but the key barrier of this cross border merger is how to get approval from the unions.
It is reported by Yonhap News, the union of KUMHO voted in GZ factory on April 1st,2741 union members is participated in voting,60.6% member of the unions agreed to sell, 1052 members opposed. As the result of voting is that the unions agree to sell, the creditor will sign sales contract with DOUBLESTAR, this is the key turning points of this whole merger.
Now, the big merger case of Chinese tire industry finally ended by passing two years. It is reported, DOUBLESTAR establish KUMHO team on 10th of April, which will coordinate with job handover and running of new DOUBLESTAR in the near future.