Cooper Tire extended its legal efforts to force India’s Apollo Tyres to speed up the companies’ planned merger yesterday when it said it was appealing against a ruling that exonerated Apollo from blame for the deal’s substantial problems.

Cooper said it believed that Friday’s ruling by Sam Glasscock, vice-chancellor of Delaware’s Chancery Court, in their legal action against Apollo had misconstrued the merger deal between the two.

Judge Glasscock ruled that Apollo was not suffering, as Cooper contended, “buyer’s remorse” over the $2.5bn, all-cash deal announced on June 12. He also ruled that Apollo was doing its best to resolve problems that the deal has encountered both with the United Steel Workers’ union in the US and Cooper’s Chinese joint venture partner, Chenghsan Group.