Michelin invests $10m this year

French Michelin Group, the leading tyre maker in the world, will invest more than $10 million in Romania this year, Cristina Hanganu, Michelin Romania’s PR manager, told Ziarul Financiar. “We have a nine-year (2001-2010) investment plan, which sets investments worth at least 60 million euros aimed at increasing the productive capacity, improving quality and installing information systems,” Hanganu added. Michelin bought three tyre factories from the Tofan Group, i.e. Silvania Zalau, Victoria Floresti and Tofan Recap in August 2001, as well as 20 storage facilities that also sell products to clients and the entire franchised retail network Automaxima. All these entities were included in a holding-type company, Michelin Romania. No details about how much the deal was worth were released, but it was reportedly about $80 million, collected by Nomura International investment fund and businessman Gelu Tofan, the founder of the group. The French group had invested some 26 million euros in Romania from the moment it acquired the factories until the end of last year. ZF