Magna to take public Decoma private
AURORA, ONTARIO - Decoma International Inc.'s parent company is planning to take the exterior auto specialist private and is set to buy up public shares of the business by March 6.
Magna International Inc. and Decoma officials said Jan. 13 they will hold a Feb. 24 shareholder meeting to vote on the plan.
Magna, based in Aurora, is pursuing a similar plan for its Tesma International Inc. - a maker of transmission and engine systems - which was first announced in December. Magna also controls privately held interior group Intier Automotive and engineering and assembly group Magna Steyr.
Concord, Ontario-based Decoma has 16,000 employees molding front and rear fascias and modules, running boards, roof modules, exterior trim and body sealing, across North America and Europe. Its global sales of more than US$2.3 billion include more than US$500 million in injection molding alone.
Decoma has been struggling financially, though, faced with losses from three European operations, with its Belgian Belplas molding and paint line adding costs from problems related to the launch of new business for Volkswagen AG. Decoma estimated the troubled sites will account for a loss of between US$32 million and US$37 million for the fourth quarter of 2004.
Sigma still adding stretch film capacity
LYNDHURST, N.J. - Sigma Plastics Corp. is adding three production lines, boosting capacity at the North American industrial stretch film leader to more than 400 million pounds.
The Lyndhurst firm has ordered two new monolayer blown film lines and one five-layer cast line from Battenfeld Gloucester, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alfred Teo said Jan. 12. Combined, the lines have about 50 million pounds of capacity.
The company will invest about $9 million in the new equipment, Teo said. The cast line will be installed at Sigma Stretch Film's Lyndhurst plant, and the blown film lines will operate at sites in Belleville, Ontario, and Shelbyville, Ky.
The lines will give Sigma a total of 425 million pounds of industrial stretch film capacity. The firm has five stretch film plants in North America.
Tredegar blown film plant up for sale
LAGRANGE, GA. - Tredegar Corp. wants to sell its blown film plant in LaGrange, continuing its exit from that business.
The Richmond, Va.-based firm will focus on higher-growth areas, spokeswoman Mitzi Reynolds said Jan. 12. Products made from Tredegar's polyethylene blown film products include back sheet for diapers and pouches for feminine hygiene pads.
Tredegar will focus on apertured and elastic products, such as side panels for diapers and top sheets for feminine-hygiene products, and specialty film, Reynolds said.
``We have been moving products in and out of the LaGrange plant and making a transition,'' she said. ``We've consolidated all the [blown film] business at the plant.''
The firm wants to sell both the building and equipment, she said. The 127,000-square-foot plant employs 90. The firm's blown film segment recorded sales last year of about $25 million.
Publicly held Tredegar would like to complete a sale by midyear and has hired Baltimore financial consulting firm Bengur Bryan & Co. Inc. to assist with the divestiture, Reynolds said.
Bleyer blames China for lost market
VALLEY STREAM, N.Y. - Foreign competition led Bleyer Industries Inc., a maker of plastic Easter eggs and other holiday products, to file for Chapter 11 protection from creditors Jan. 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, N.Y.
In a court filing, Gus Poulis, chief executive officer of Valley Stream-based Bleyer, said that ``severe competition primarily from China'' caused his firm to lose market share in the plastic Easter egg business.
Bleyer sold its extrusion plant in Mount Union, Pa., in October and its printing and converting plant in Hauppage, N.Y., on Jan. 1, according to court records. No buyer is listed on either deal. Proceeds from those sales were used to repay some debt, but Bleyer's listed assets of $3.2 million still barely exceeded its debt of just over $2.8 million. The firm is trying to sell its Peoria, Ill., injection molding plant as well, court records said.
Court records also said Bleyer's landlord in Peoria will not let merchandise leave the plant until the firm makes an installment payment against rent arrears. In Peoria, Bleyer runs 35 presses.
Neither Gus Poulis nor his brother Nicholas, who is Bleyer president, could be reached for comment.