Japanese tyre company takes over Micheldever Tyre Services

Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries has agreed to takeover Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS), the UK’s second largest car tyre distributor, for £251m.

Micheldever, which supplies 6.0m tyres a year, is owned by private equity group Graphite Capital which has previously sold Maplin Electronics and Paperchase.

If the sale goes through Britain’s top two British tyre distributors will be Japanese owned after Kwik-Fit was sold to trading house Itochu for £637m in 2011.

Japanese investors have had their eye on UK assets after the fall in the pound post-Brexit vote. Japanese firms spent $33.7bn (£27.4bn) on 43 British firms last year according to Dealogic, a financial markets analysis firm. Japanese Telecom and software giant SoftBank’s takeover of UK chip designer Arm Holdings in September was the largest acquisition made this year.

Sumitomo, the world’s sixth largest tyre manufacturer, has also agreed to spend $138m to buy Sports Direct’s Dunlop sporting goods brand, but that deal has yet to reach completion.

The £215m offer is 3.7 times Graphite’s initial investment in 2006. Sumitomo are also expected to continue the firm’s expansion subject to the transaction winning regulatory approval from the European Union.

MTS has increased its turnover from £150m to over £320m and expanded its workforce from 600 to 1,600 under Graphite’s ownership.