SEC Company Response from TITAN INTERNATIONAL INC (TWI) (CIK 0000899751) (TWI) — Dec 14, 2009
TITAN INTERNATIONAL INC (TWI) (CIK 0000899751)
Date: Dec. 14, 2009 · CIK: 0000899751 · Accession: 0000899751-09-000029
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
Referenced dates: December 1, 2009
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CORRESP
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filename1.htm
commentresponse.htm
TITAN
INTERNATIONAL, INC.
December
14, 2009
Rufus
Decker
Accounting
Branch Chief
United
States
Securities
and Exchange Commission
Washington,
D.C. 20549-7010
RE:
Titan International, Inc.
Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2008
Forms 10-Q for the Periods Ended March
31, 2009, June 30, 2009 and
September
30, 2009
Definitive Proxy Statement on Schedule
14A filed March 30, 2009
File No.
1-12936
Dear Mr.
Decker,
We have
received your faxed letter dated December 1, 2009, regarding the review of the
above mentioned filings of Titan International, Inc. (the
Company). Please see the attached Exhibit A for the Company’s
responses to your letter.
In
connection with our response to the Comment Letter, the Company hereby
acknowledges that:
·
the
Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in
the filings;
·
staff
comments or changes to disclosure in response to staff comments do not
foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the
filing; and
·
the
Company may not assert staff comments as a defense in any proceeding
initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities
laws of the United States.
Please do
not hesitate to contact Kent Hackamack at 217-221-4330 or Cheri Holley at
217-221-4484 if you have any questions concerning the Company’s
response.
Sincerely,
/s/ Kent W.
Hackamack
/s/ Cheri T.
Holley
Kent
W. Hackamack
Cheri
T. Holley
Vice
President of Finance and Treasurer
Vice
President, Secretary
and
General Counsel
EXHIBIT A
– COMMENTS & RESPONSES
FORM 10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED
DECEMBER 31, 2008
Item 1. Business, page
1
1.
Item
101(a) of Regulation S-K requires a general description of how your
business has developed during the last five fiscal years, including, but
not limited to, information about the year and form of organization as
well as the nature and results of any material merger, consolidation or
acquisition of, or by, a registrant or any of its significant
subsidiaries. In future filings, please consider providing a
brief narrative of your corporate history in the introductory paragraph of
your business disclosure, which should also highlight material business
developments (for example we note disclosure about the OTR tire assets of
Continental Tire North America, Inc., and The Goodyear North American farm
tire asset acquisition).
Response
to comment 1:
In future
filings, Titan International, Inc. (Titan or the Company) will provide
additional information regarding the development of the company. The
business disclosure for the December 31, 2009, Annual Report on Form 10-K would
include the following disclosure:
Titan
traces its roots to the Electric Wheel Company in Quincy, Illinois, which was
founded in 1890. The Company was incorporated in 1983. The
Company has grown through two major asset acquisitions in recent
years. In 2005, Titan Tire Corporation, a subsidiary of the Company,
acquired The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s North American farm tire
assets. In 2006, Titan Tire Corporation of Bryan, a subsidiary of the
Company, acquired the off-the-road (OTR) tire assets of Continental Tire North
America, Inc. These asset acquisitions have allowed Titan to achieve
higher sales levels and enhance product offering in the Company’s target
markets.
2.
On
page 3, you identify the U.S. Government as one of your core long-term
customers. If a material portion of your business may be
subject to renegotiation of profits or termination of contracts or
subcontracts at the election of the U.S. Government, please
revise your disclosure in future filings to include information required
to be disclosed in accordance with Item 101(c)(1)(ix) of Regulation S-K,
to the extent that such information is
material.
Response
to comment 2:
The
Company has had a long-term relationship with the U.S. Government; however, the
U.S. Government is not a material portion of total Titan sales. In
future filings, the Company will remove the U.S. Government from the list of
core customers.
Patents, Trademarks, and
Royalties, page 7
3.
Please
file the license agreement with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company as
an exhibit with your next annual
report.
Response
to comment 3:
The
reason that the license agreement with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
(Goodyear) is not an exhibit is due to the fact that the agreement contains
extensive confidential and proprietary information that is not public
information. If the information were to be made public, it would do
harm to both Goodyear and the Company.
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Research, Development and
Engineering, page 7
4.
We
note that your disclosure lacks information about the estimated amount
spent during each of the last three fiscal years on company-sponsored
research and development activities determined in accordance with
generally accepted accounting principles. To the extent
material, in future filings please revise your disclosure to comply with
Item 101(c)(1)(xi) of Regulation
S-K.
Response
to comment 4:
The
Company disclosed research and development expenses in Note 1 of the Notes to
Consolidated Financial Statements in the Company’s 2008 Annual Report on Form
10-K. In future filings, the Company will also include this
information in the Research, Development and Engineering section of Item 1.
Business.
Export Sales, page
8
5.
Please
note that disclosure provided in the last two paragraphs represents risk
factor disclosure which is more appropriate for the risk factor section of
your annual report. Please revise your future filings
accordingly.
Response
to comment 5:
In future
filings, the information pertaining to risk factor disclosure under the Export
Sales heading will be moved to the risk factor section of the Company’s Annual
Report on Form 10-K.
Item 1a – Risk Factors, page
10
6.
Please
note that Item 503(c) of Regulation S-K requires that each risk factor is
set forth under a subcaption that adequately describes the
risk. Risk factor disclosure should concisely, but adequately
describe currently material risks affecting your business. For
example, it is unclear how changes in government regulations and policies
related to farm and ethanol subsidies would affect your business, or what
drives the product liability claims and what the extent of such risk may
be. In future filings, please reorganize your risk factor
disclosure to include subcaptions and further expand the content of your
risk factor disclosure to clearly communicate to the investors how the
enumerated risks may affect your
business.
Response
to comment 6:
In future
filings, the Company will reorganize risk factor disclosure to contain
subcaptions and include additional risk factor disclosure. The
following is a disclosure example:
·
The
Company is exposed to price fluctuations of key
commodities.
The
Company does not generally enter into long-term commodity contracts and does not
use derivative commodity instruments to hedge exposures to commodity market
price fluctuations. Therefore, the Company is exposed to price
fluctuations of our key commodities, which consist primarily of steel and
rubber. Although the Company attempts to pass on certain material
price increases to its customers, there is no assurance that the Company will be
able to do so in the future. Any increase in the price of steel and
rubber that is not passed on to customers could have an adverse material effect
on the Company’s results of operations.
·
The
Company relies on a limited number of
suppliers.
The
Company currently relies on a limited number of suppliers for certain key
commodities, which consist primarily of steel and rubber, in the manufacturing
of our products. The loss of key suppliers or their inability to meet
price, quality, quantity and delivery requirements could have a significant
adverse impact on the Company’s results of operations.
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7.
In
future filings, please expand your risk factor disclosure to capture all
material risks that the company faces because of current market conditions
and predicted volatility. Please avoid overly broad and
boilerplate disclosure and provide more specific information to focus on
actual risks, including, but not limited
to:
a)
providing
qualitative and quantitative information to alert investors about how the
market downturn in the construction industry, and the worldwide recession
and the economic crisis in general, have affected and may affect your
business and financial performance (we note your results of operations for
the quarter ended September 30, 2009, which reflected a loss from
operations of $(15.8) million, compared to income from operations of $21.3
million for the same period in
2008);
b)
the
impact that the extended shut-downs implemented by the company's major
customers have had on your operating results, and the likelihood of future
interruptions of your production facilities (see disclosure in the second
to last paragraph on page 19 of your latest quarterly
report);
c)
the
effect that the decrease in the fair value of Titan Europe Plc may have on
your business considering the recording of a $37.7 million temporary
impairment charge at the end of 2008 (we note your disclosure in Note 7,
page F-13); and
d)
the
effect that the fluctuation of the pension costs may have on your
financial position (we note disclosure at the end of page 34 regarding
your defined pensions plans being underfunded by $28.7
million).
Response
to comment 7:
In future
filings, the Company will enhance risk factor disclosure to capture risks that
the Company faces due to current market conditions and
volatility. For clarification on item c) above, the 2008 Titan Europe
Plc impairment was recorded as an other-than-temporary charge, not a temporary
charge.
Item 7. Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations
Agricultural Market Outlook,
page 33
8.
Please
tell us what consideration have you given to filing the supply agreement
with John Deere as an exhibit to the annual
report.
Response
to comment 8:
The
supply contract with John Deere is not filed as an exhibit due to the fact it
contains substantial confidential and proprietary information which is not
public. The agreement includes pricing and other matters that if the
agreement were to be filed would do great harm to both John Deere and
Titan.
Exhibit Index, page
41
General
9.
With
respect to all of your material business acquisitions and related
arrangements, please file all acquisition and similar agreements as
exhibits to your next annual report. See Item 601 (b)(2) of Regulation
S-K. We note, as examples, the acquisition of OTR tire assets
from Continental Tire North America, Inc. and The Goodyear North American
farm tire asset acquisition.
Response
to comment 9:
The asset
purchase agreement for The Goodyear North American farm tire asset acquisition
was filed as Exhibit 10 to the Company’s Form 10-Q for the quarterly period
ended March 31, 2005. The asset purchase agreement for the
acquisition of OTR tire assets from Continental Tire North America, Inc. was
filed as Exhibit 10 to the Company’s Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended
September 30, 2006. The acquisition exhibits are not filed because
they contain extensive confidential and proprietary information which is not
public information. The agreement includes information on employees,
pricing on products and other matters that if it were filed, it would do great
harm to Goodyear, Continental and the Company.
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10.
Please
file all employment agreements with your named executive officers as
exhibits to your next annual report. We note disclosure
starting on page 13 of your 2008 definitive proxy
statement.
Response
to comment 10:
The
Company will include these items on the exhibit index of its next annual
report. The Company previously filed these documents as exhibits to
the Company’s Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30,
2006.
11.
It
appears that you have not filed the final executed version of the Amended
and Restated Credit Agreement dated January 30, 2009 (Exhibit
10.10). We also note that you have not filed the exhibits and
schedules to this agreement. Please file the complete copy of
this agreement with your next periodic report and ensure that you file the
final version of all of your material documents and
agreements.
Response
to comment 11:
The
Amended and Restated Credit Agreement dated January 30, 2009, that was filed as
an exhibit to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on February 2,
2009, was the final executed version of this document. Filing the
schedules and exhibits would do harm to the Company due to the fact they contain
confidential information.
Financial
Statements
31. Subsidiary Guarantor
Financial Information, page F-30
12.
Your
December 31, 2008 and 2007 consolidating condensed balance sheets reflect
material intercompany receivables and intercompany
payables. Please tell us the nature of your intercompany
accounts as presented on pages F-31 and F-32. Please tell us
where you are classifying the changes in intercompany receivables/payables
in your consolidating condensed statements of cash flows. The
guidance in paragraphs 18 and 136 of SFAS 95 regarding the classification
of intercompany advances may be
relevant.
Response
to comment 12:
The
intercompany accounts relate to selling, general & administrative (SG&A)
expenses and operating transactions. The Company maintains SG&A
expenses and cash balances at the corporate level. The Company did
not maintain any intercompany notes with any of its subsidiaries at the 2008
year-end. In accordance with SFAS 95, the changes in intercompany
accounts in the consolidating condensed statements of cash flows are included as
a component of operating activities as they relate to operating
transactions.
FORM 10-Q FOR THE PERIOD
ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
General
13.
Please
address the comments above in your interim filings as
well.
Response
to comment 13:
The
Company will address the comments described above in future interim filings when
applicable.
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Financial
Statements
5. Investments in
Titan Europe PLC, page 7