HANOVER, Germany (April 11) — Continental A.G. has offered to buy 51 percent of the rubber business of Slovak Republic´s Matador A.S., subject to the approval of antitrust authorities.
The companies did not disclose the value of Conti´s offer. Matador reported sales of $619 million with 4,770 employees in fiscal 2006.
Conti said it would invest an undisclosed sum to expand passenger and light truck tire production at Matador´s Puchov, Slovak Republic, headquarters factory by more the 27 percent to 7 million units a year.
Conti and Matador already are involved in a truck tire joint venture at Puchov. The deal also would include Matador´s conveyor belt production in Puchov and its share of a joint venture tire plant in Omsk, Russia.
Conti also plans to integrate Matador´s rubber processing machinery business into its own machinery operations at its plant in Hanover-Stoecken, Germany.