US court dismisses Cooper Tire case against Apollo Tyres

Apollo Tyres today said US court has dismissed the case filed against it by Cooper Tire and Rubber on the issue related to merger of Cooper Tire with Apollo. Cooper has also given up all its claims against Apollo. “Pursuant to the ruling by Vice Chancellor Glasscock on 31 October, 2014 that Apollo was not in breach of any of its obligations under the Merger Agreement, Apollo Tyres is pleased with last week’s final dismissal of the Delaware litigation filed by Cooper Tire and Rubber against Apollo whereby Cooper has expressly given up all its claims against Apollo, thus vindicating Apollo’s case,” Apollo Tyres said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_1159183” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Last month, Apollo had said that a ruling of a US court in its favour in the Cooper Tire deal had vindicated its stand that they made exhaustive efforts to complete the deal but US tire manufacturer failed to comply with its contractual obligations. Delaware Chancery Court Judge Sam Glasscock III in the judgement had said Cooper failed to comply with its contractual obligations. “This brings to a conclusion all the legal action that had been initiated against Apollo, which had consistently and diligently attempted to resolve all the issues that came up, to close the deal as per agreement,” the company added. On its future plans, Apollo said the company will “now pursue its organic growth projects in Eastern Europe and elsewhere without any overhang of the legal process in the United States.” On 31 December, 2013, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co terminated $2.5-billion merger agreement with the Indian firm. In June last year, Apollo had announced it will acquire Cooper Tire & Rubber Co in an all-cash transaction valued at around $2.5 billion (nearly Rs 14,500 crore) and the merged entity was billed to become the seventh largest tyre maker in the world. PTI