Bridgestone raising capital, capacity in Europe

TOKYO (Dec. 5)—Bridgestone Corp. will boost the capital of its Bridgestone/Firestone Europe S.A. subsidiary by $400 million this year and devote a portion of these funds to rebuild its manufacturing resources and shore up its sales organization and financial position. At the same time, Bridgestone will rename the Brussels, Belgium-based unit Bridgestone Europe N.V./S.A. as part of a new business strategy in Europe intended to raise the firm's share of the high-performance tire market in the region. Bridgestone will increase daily capacity at its plant in Poznan, Poland, to 23,000 passenger tires from 15,000, and expand daily truck and bus tire output at its Bilbao, Spain, plant by 1,100 units to 4,600 units by year-end of 2005. The group also will build a second proving ground in Rome and write down $300 million against the value of aging tire equipment at plants in Bethune, France; Bari, Italy; and Burgos, Bilbao and Puente San Miguel, Spain.