The European Commission has extended its investigation period for Thule’s acquisition of Pewag Schneeketten GmbH which was made public on March 31 of this year.

“The European Commission needs more time to investigate into the consequences for customers and consumers in markets such as Italy, Austria and France”, comments Anders Pettersson, CEO and President of Thule AB. “The complexity of the market conditions makes this further investigation necessary and we support this step. We estimate that the final decision will be made in approximately four months”, concludes Anders Pettersson.

The Thule Group acquired in 2004 the Italian snow chain producer König (net sales in 2005 of SEK 308 M) in line with its strategy of growing the company in adjacent product categories that support the Thule positioning as being world leader in Sports Utility Transportation. Thule’s snow chain business has a focus on passenger car chains. The Austrian Pewag Schneeketten GmbH (net sales in 2005 of € 48M) offers snow chains mainly for professional use and is part of the family owned Pewag Group that also supplies chains for industrial such as tire protection and lifting gears.