Success for French takeover bid after five months of wrangling
Saint-Gobain has succeeded in buying UK plasterboard firm BPB after a five-month saga. The French company agreed to pay 775p per share, valuing the British firm at 拢3.9bn. Its initial offer in July was 675p.
A week ago BPB announced six-month results that included a jump in pre-tax profits of 拢185m 鈥� up 28.5% 鈥� and said it was confident it would reach its predicted full-year profits of 拢350m or more. Saint-Gobain meanwhile has cut back its forecasted profit as energy costs increase.
Jean-Louis Beffa, Chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain said: 鈥淐ombining our insulation business with BPB creates a global leader in building interior solutions. It gives us high profitability, strong free cash flow generation and further access to multi-regional markets.鈥�
Sir Ian Gibson, Chairman of BPB added: 鈥淏PB's strategy has been to provide superior growth as a focused independent company. However, Saint-Gobain have today made a compelling offer which delivers full value for BPB's world leading position and its future prospects. Accordingly, the BPB Board will be recommending shareholders to accept the 775p cash offer from Saint-Gobain.鈥�
