Pirelli has unveiled its new F1 tyre range for 2013. Pirelli has unveiled its new F1 tyre range for 2013.
Beijing - China's biggest state-owned chemical company announced plans on Monday to acquire Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli, adding to a string of high-profile Chinese corporate purchases in Europe.
ChemChina said it has agreed to buy a 26.2 percent stake in Pirelli Tyre SpA from its biggest shareholder, Camfin SpA, which is controlled by the family of Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera. The company said it would offer to buy the remaining outstanding shares.
Flush with cash from their country's boom, Chinese companies are stepping up acquisitions abroad as they diversify beyond their own economy, where growth is slowing.
Europe is seen as an attractive market for potential purchases due to the relative weakness of the euro right now and what Chinese companies see as less political resistance to large deals there than they might face in the United States.
Chemchina, also known as China National Chemical Corporation, is one of China's biggest industrial companies, with businesses in petrochemicals, oil processing, agricultural chemicals, rubber products and chemical equipment.
The Beijing-based company, which has its own tyre manufacturing operation, said it would support the growth and expansion of Pirelli, the world's fifth-largest tyre supplier.
The deal reflects ChemChina's unusual status as a state-owned Chinese company that has made ambitious acquisitions abroad outside the finance and natural resources industries.
In 2011, its unit China National Bluestar closed the biggest Chinese acquisition in Europe to that point, paying $2 billion for Norway-based chemical producer Elkem.
Sapa-AP