The Carlyle Group completes US$1.475 billion acquisition of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's Engineered Products Division

Torys acted as counsel to The Carlyle Group in Canada with a team that included Kevin Morris, Michael Akkawi and Trish Finkelstein (corporate and M&A), John Unger (tax), Sue-Anne Fox, Jay Holsten and Philip Mohtadi (regulatory), Sabrina Gherbaz (real estate), Christina Medland, Mitch Frazer and Stacey Parker-Yull (pension and employment), Michael Fortier, Dennis Mahony and Tyson Dyck (environmental) and Eric Boehm (IP).

On July 31, 2007, The Carlyle Group completed its US$1.475 billion acquisition of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's Engineered Products Division. The transaction involved the purchase of assets and shares in 19 countries. As part of the transaction, Goodyear has agreed to a trademark licensing agreement with Veyance Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Carlyle Group, to use the Goodyear brand and certain other Engineered Products trademarks. As part of Carlyle's tax planning, the assets in the Argentinean, Chinese and Venezuelan businesses are held through a Canadian subsidiary, the total value of which is over US$160 million.

Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals.

The Carlyle Group, based in New York, is one of the world's largest private equity firms with US$54.5 billion in investments in more than 185 companies.

Further information about the transaction is found here.