Bridgestone buys Australian businesses

BRISBANE, Australia (Feb. 3)—Bridgestone Australia Ltd. has completed its acquisition of the tire retailing and retreading businesses of Australia´s Boral Ltd. The deal includes about 50 retail sites, 15 retreading plants and a tread rubber plant, and makes Bridgestone responsible for Bandag Inc. activities in Australia because one of the activities acquired—Bandag Manufacturing Pty. Ltd.—has been Bandag´s licensee for Australia. As part of the deal, Bridgestone Australia intends to convert its own retread plants to the Bandag process, a Bandag spokesman said. Terms of the deal were not released; collectively the acquired assets account for about $80 million in annual sales.