Pirelli SpA is looking to increase its profit margin from tire sales, becoming more appealing to investors, when the tiremaker’s controlling shareholder Marco Tronchetti Provera exits in 2017, according to Reuters.

The tiremaker, who has seen four consecutive years of margin growth in Europe, is now promising four more years of growth.

Tronchetti must find a buyer in 2017 his 26% stake in Pirelli, owned along with Italian private equity fund Clessidra and two Italian banks, or hand Clessidra control of the Pirelli board and allow it to choose the buyer, reports said.

A business plan recently unveiled by the tiremaker aim’s to accelerate Pirelli’s shift into the premium tire marker, which by 2016 will account for 44% of its sales. The segment currently accounts for 38% of sales.
The plan also targets an operating profit margin of 15% by 2017. Its margin in 2012 was 13%.
Europe accounts for roughly one-third of Pirelli’s sales.