Skellerup Holdings may issue new shares after it takes over Italian rubber products maker Tumedei SpA - which has a product used for new biofuels technology in Europe.
Skellerup chairman Keith Smith said that after several acquisitions, the board was examining the company's capital structure.
As well as
the $19.6 million purchase of Tumedei - expected to be implemented by the end of this month - Skellerup has also paid $32 million for Gulf Rubber, which has bases in Auckland and Sydney.
The two firms are in the technical side of the rubber business and management says they have different but complementary customer bases.
Last year Skellerup bought Thorndon Rubber in Wellington, Auckland industrial rubber roller firm Rubber Services, Melbourne importer Jenco and Ambic, a British supplier of hygiene equipment.
Skellerup says that Tumedei was paid for mostly by bank debt, but the company - which has a market capitalisation of $135.6 million - is looking at options for its capital structure.
A decision is expected in the next six months.
Because of changes to the company, Smith said, it had postponed a planned special meeting of shareholders about the executive share incentive scheme.
Chief financial officer Neil Campbell said Skellerup was developing the technical side of the business.
But it was still dominant in industrial footwear, which included its Red Band gumboots.
Tumedei has 50 staff and annual revenue of $15 million.
Campbell said Tumedei had clients in Europe and a new product used for alternative fuel systems which was very promising.
Skellerup also owns two industrial plants in the United States - one in New York and one in Nebraska.
"We are mainly a rubber business and the direction is down the technical side - rubber production that has some intellectual property either in the formation of the rubber or the production," Campbell said.
The company dates back to 1910 when George Skellerup opened the first rubber goods retail store in New Zealand, under the Para name.
Company interests were consolidated in 1947.
The company was restructured after Brierley Investments bought in in 1987.
