Saint-Gobain Offers $2.8 Billion for Controlling Stake in Sika
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA, Europe’s biggest building materials supplier, offered 2.75 billion Swiss francs ($2.8 billion) to buy a controlling stake Sika AG, a Swiss maker of construction chemicals that opposes the transaction.
The transaction involves Saint-Gobain’s purchase of Schenker Winkler Holding AG, the owner of 16.1 percent of Sika’s capital and 52.4 percent of its voting rights, the French company, based in Courbevoie near Paris, said in a statement today. Saint-Gobain said it doesn’t plan to bid for the rest of Sika’s shares.
Sika’s board and management oppose the transaction, the Swiss company said in a statement today.
“ The board neither sees the industrial logic in the transaction, nor significant synergies for Sika,” Sika said. “Shareholder value would be impaired as Sika in the planned set-up would not be able to continue its successful growth strategy.”
Saint-Gobain also announced today that it’s starting a “competitive process” for the sale of its Verallia glass packaging unit as it continues to refocus on building materials. Saint-Gobain completed the $1.7 billion sale of the North American assets of its glass bottle-and-jar unit Verallia to Ardagh Group SA in the first half.
Saint-Gobain said in October it will step up cost cuts in 2015 to adjust to France’s construction slump that has hurt demand for flat glass and building materials.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Thiel at sthiel1@bloomberg.net Thomas Mulier, David Whitehouse
