Pirelli industrial tire unit to become 'Prometeon Tyre'

MILAN, Italy — Pirelli & C. S.p.A.'s split into separate consumer and industrial tire companies took another key step this week with the renaming of the industrial tire business unit as "Prometeon Tyre Group S.r.l."

Pirelli disclosed this move and others — including the intention to effect a public offering in 2018 for Pirelli as a "pure consumer" tire company — in its fiscal 2016 financial results statement.

Pirelli also disclosed a revised shareholding structure, noting that a 52-percent shareholding in Prometeon (PTG) owned by Pirelli's TP Industrial Holding unit was reassigned to Marco Polo Industrial Holding S.p.A., the investment vehicle set up in 2015 to facilitate China National Chemical Corp.'s acquisition of Pirelli.

Marco Polo, in turn, is owned by CNRC (65 percent), Cam Finanziaria S.p.A. (22.4 percent) and Long Term Investment (12.6 percent), according to Pirelli.

Meanwhile, 38 percent of shares in PTG have been sold to a Chinese investment fund called Cinda International Holdings Ltd. for $242 million.

In addition, the board of directors of TP Industrial Holding confirmed Pirelli Chairman Ren Jianxin as chairman of Prometeon; Pirelli Executive Vice Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera as vice chairman; and Pirelli Industrial CEO Paolo Dal Pino as CEO.

The new ownership structures are intended to enable both Pirelli and PTG to pursue independent paths.

"Pirelli will be entirely focused on the consumer business, thus becoming the sole 'pure consumer tire company' in the sector, in view of its future listing on the stock exchange," the company said in the financial statement. The company's portfolio will cover passenger, light truck/SUV and motorcycle tires.

In October, following its acquisition by ChemChina, Pirelli swapped 10 percent of its industrial tires business, called Pirelli Industrial, with 80 percent of the Chinese state-owned company's Aeolus passenger car tire business.

The Italian company said the move would strengthen its strategic position in higher profitability segments of the consumer tire market.

Additionally, Pirelli said that its business model would be more focused on the end-consumer and that it would exploit business opportunities offered by "new and sustainable mobility."

Another area of focus, Pirelli said, will be on "totally digitized industrial, commercial and management processes."

In the run-up to ChemChina's purchase of Pirelli, the companies said combining Pirelli's truck and farm tire assets with those of ChemChina's National Tire & Rubber Co. subsidiary would create an entity that would be the fourth largest commercial tire business globally. Tire Business estimates this entity would generate annual sales of about $3 billion.

Shahrzad Pourriahi is a reporter with European Rubber Journal, a London-based sister publication of Tire Business.