Sika Full-Year Sales Advance, Fueled by Emerging-Market Growth
(Bloomberg) — Sika AG, the Swiss adhesives maker that’s resisting the sale of a controlling stake to competitor Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA, reported higher full-year sales on growth in emerging markets.
Revenue rose 8.3 percent to 5.57 billion Swiss francs ($5.5 billion) in 2014, the Baar-based company said today in a statement. That compares with the 5.54-billion franc average of nine analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
“Our Strategy 2018, under which we are accelerating the build-up in the emerging markets is producing results that exceed our targets and expectations,” Chief Executive Officer Jan Jenisch said today.
Sika’s management had threatened to quit after France’s Saint-Gobain agreed to acquire a stake with 52.4 percent of the voting rights from the founding Burkard family.
Sika still rejects the change of control in the “currently proposed form,” the company said today. The adhesive maker has questioned the industrial logic of the move, as well as the lack of upside for minority shareholders left on the periphery of the $2.8 billion deal.
The board and group management will “continue to act in best interest of Sika and its stakeholders, and this includes holding constructive talks with all parties involved,” the company said today.
The management crisis is poised to come to a head at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in the coming weeks, with the Burkard family looking to replace Chairman Paul Haelg and two directors with their own candidates.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Noel in London at anoel@bloomberg.net; Jan-Henrik Förster in Zurich at jforster20@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Thiel at sthiel1@bloomberg.net Thomas Mulier, Kim McLaughlin
