Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (GT)

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DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s (GT) planned offering of at least 8.7 million mandatory convertible preferred shares priced at $50 each, as the company seeks proceeds to redeem notes due in 2016.

The tire maker has made a handful of recent moves that would shore up its balance sheet, selling $1 billion in debt in August and agreeing to sell its European and Latin American farm-tire businesses to Titan International Inc. (TWI) for about $130 million in December.

Meanwhile, Goodyear has reported improving revenue as worldwide commercial and consumer demand have improved. Last month it said it could weather a surge in raw-material costs and predicted global tire sales could rise as much as 5% this year. It posted core earnings for the fourth quarter that topped analysts' expectations.

Tuesday, the company said the sale of mandatory convertible preferred shares would raise at least $421 million. It plans to use proceeds to redeem $350 million in senior notes due in 2016, which have a 10.5% coupon.

Shares closed Monday at $14.57 and were inactive in recent premarket trading.