Czech businessmen may buy a stake in Pirelli

Czech businessmen Michal Strnad and Pavel Tykač may buy a part of the Chinese holding Sinochem's stake in Pirelli, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported, noting that the entrepreneurs have expressed interest in acquiring between 10 and 20% of the shares.

It is reported that the negotiations are currently at an early stage, and the key obstacle to reaching an agreement is disagreements regarding the value of the shares. Tykač owns the company Sev.en GI, which has assets in the US, Europe, and Australia, mainly in the mining and steel industries, as well as energy. In turn, Strnad is the owner of CSG, a major manufacturer of products for the defense industry.

Currently, Sinochem is the largest shareholder of Pirelli with a stake of 34.1%, while the Camfin structure, controlled by Pirelli's long-time CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera, owns just under 27% of the shares.

In early 2026, Rome, against the backdrop of a conflict between Italian and Chinese investors in Pirelli, used the "golden power" rule, created to protect strategically important companies for the country, to limit Sinochem's opportunities in terms of managing the tire manufacturer. The dispute was related to the fact that, in the opinion of Pirelli and Camfin, Sinochem's participation in the company's capital complicates the implementation of plans to expand the business in the US, since Washington restricts the use of Chinese technologies in the automotive business, and "smart" tires that can collect and transmit data in real-time have become a "stumbling block".

Not so long ago, Pirelli's shareholders elected a new board of directors, and 12 out of 15 approved members were nominated by Camfin. It is expected that at the first meeting of the new board, the contract of CEO Andrea Casalucci will be extended, and Tronchetti Provera will be appointed as the executive chairman of the board - prior to this, he served as executive vice-chairman for three years, and previously, from 1992 to 2023, he headed the company.

The restrictions imposed by the Italian government allow Sinochem to nominate up to three members of the board of directors, but they cannot hold key positions such as chairman or CEO.

Pirelli also announced that it intends to launch an investment program in the US worth between $1 billion and $1.2 billion. The funds are planned to be invested, among other things, in the organization of production of "smart" tires, and in Pirelli, they say that thanks to Rome's intervention, they were able to agree with the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce to bring tires of this type to the American market.