Any opinion here?
Thanks, Ed - this is what I tried to post yesterday:
Some interesting action this afternoon in the developing story at wheels and undercarriage manufacturer Titan Europe, with the price up 6p (24%) and only a small volume of trades reported so far.
The background to this is that in December when TSW was bumping along at all-time lows of 8p, a European competitor, Mefro Wheels, swooped to acquire 24.8% from institutional holders at a whopping 40p (400% premium) ! Mefro announced that it didn't intend to make an offer at that time, but reserved the right to do so in the next six months if an offer was tabled by another party.
Fast forward a month, and the price had crept up to 18p, before shooting up to 35p on 12 January on large volumes. There wasn't long to wait until the homes for these shares were known as holdings announcements were made on 13 & 15 January stating that Mefro had upped its stake to 29.9% and Titan Luxembourg SARL, subsidiary of Titan International Inc (TSW's original parent company, and with whom TSW shares 3 directors) had increased to 22.9%. So it seems that the positioning phase is almost complete (bar some further announcements of recent large trade volumes) and we await phase two where each party shows its hand.
Further background is that Titan Intl Inc had made an offer for TSW last February at £2.30, but this petered out and talks were formally terminated by September.
Current significant holders are:
29.9% Mefro Wheels
22.9% Titan Luxembourg SARL
8.3% AXA Framlington
5.1% Lehman Brothers (in administration)
3.7% UBS AG
3.1% Lakeview Asset Management (announced during the January melee)
73.0%
Directors hold around 1.5%
So the next few days will prove to be very interesting, clearing the way for a battle royale!
