Tire maker Kenda Rubber Industrial Co (建大輪胎) said it is to fully acquire Denmark-headquartered STARCO Europe A/S for no more than 18 million euros (US$21.2 million) to pursue vertical integration.
The acquisition, which is scheduled to be completed on Monday, also aims to expand the company’s presence in Europe, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Revenue generated from European customers only makes up 8 percent of the company’s total sales, while sales in the US contribute nearly 24 percent, data showed.
“The transaction is Kenda’s first acquisition in the European market and we aim to duplicate our success [of developing a US business] there,” a company official said by telephone yesterday.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the two parties have been working together on the research and development of wheels for industrial machines for years.
It also marks the Taiwanese firm’s second big step in Europe after it set up a technical center last year, he added.
Apart from bringing technology, STARCO can also broaden Kenda Rubber’s customer base, as the Danish firm has manufactured wheels for a wide range of customers for more than 55 years.
STARCO — which posted a turnover of 110 million euros last year — has six sales and distribution centers across Europe, according to the company’s Web site.
Meanwhile, Kenda Rubber said a new plant for producing radial tires in Vietnam is to begin trial runs next month, as part of its effort to explore the business potential of Southeast Asia.
In the near term, the tire plant would be capable of manufacturing 10,000 tires for passenger cars per day, the official said.
Kenda posted a net profit of NT$209.37 million (US$6.89 million) in the first half of this year, down 86.09 percent from NT$1.5 billion a year earlier, which the company blamed on rising material costs and foreign-exchange losses of NT$113 million.
That represented earnings per share of NT$0.24, down from NT$1.72 in the same period last year, data showed.
Revenue in the first six months of the year slid 0.21 percent year-on-year to NT$15.11 billion from NT$15.14 billion.
Gross margin fell to 20 percent from 28.17 percent.
Kenda shares slid 0.23 percent to close at NT$42.80 in Taipei trading yesterday.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
RSS