Qingdao Sentury Tire Co. Ltd. has obtained approval for a public offering (IPO) on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's SME board, according to a notice posted June 4 by China Securities Regulatory Commission.
This will be Sentury's second attempt at a public listing. It filed its first application in 2018, and the review was terminated in January 2019.
The new application was filed last November.Qingdao Sentury, the world's No. 39-ranked tire maker based on 2018 sales of $690 million, declined to comment on the application as it has entered the quiet period before IPO.Capital raised from the offering will fund Sentury's ongoing aircraft tire project in Qingdao, China. That project calls for an investment of $50 million for the expansion of capacity by 80,000 units a year, and including capacity for 50,000 retreads a year retread tires, the prospectus said.
The IPO also will finance a $5 million upgrade of Sentury's research center, a project that includes the construction of a tire proving ground and adding noise/vibration/harmonics testing and dynamic footprint testing to the company's research capabilities.
The IPO price or issuance date has not been determined.
Sentury also entered in the records an expansion project at its Thai plant, according to a notice by China's National Development and Reform Commission in May.
Sentury is represented in the U.S. by Sentury Tire USA Inc. in Miami.
