Saint Gobain expands in big acquisition
French company Saint Gobain last month acquired British building-materials manufacturer BPB PLC in a $7 billion deal. The Saint Gobain will take over the world's largest manufacturer of plasterboard (drywall), along with growing its position in plaster, flooring, ceilings, and insulation.
BPB, with income of $4.3 billion, has worldwide operations, though most of its business is in Europe. BPB was founded in 1915, and has grown through numerous acquisitions, including the 2000 acquisition of US-based Celotex, a world leader in ceiling materials, and the 2002 purchase of US-based James Hardie Industries, a deal which made BPB the leading pasteboard maker in the world.
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain (with revenues of $43 billion) is one of the oldest companies in the world, with origins going back to 1660 and the construction of Versailles. The conglomerate is best known as a manufacturer of glass, both plate glass and packaging glass. It also manufactures building materials, insulation, abrasives, and pipe, along with specialized ceramics and composite building materials. It has taken a leading position in the business of distribution of building materials as well. In the US, its CertainTeed division is a major distributor to the building trades.
In fact, Saint Gobain has been an acquisition engine. The company is becoming very active in the Asian market, and is busy in joint ventures with key rivals such as Owens Coning, Japan's HanGlass, China's HongFa, and Japan's Nippon Electric Glass. Among recent acquisitions by Saint Gobain are:
2005
- Xugang Company (Xuzhou General Iron and Steel Works), a manufacturer of steel pipe
- Microspray Delta, an Italian maker of pumps for fragrance bottles
- Optimera Gruppen SA, Norway's #3 distributor of building materials
- China-based Danfeng, a producer of silicon carbide products, used in ceramics for semiconductors and in adhesives
- Hankuk Glass Industries, a Korean maker of flat glass
- W.A.W. A-Keramika Group, the #1 distributor of tiles and bathroom ceramics in Slovakia and #2 in the Czech Republic
2004
- Sanitas Troesch, the leading Swiss distributor of bathroom products for the building trades
- Dahl International, a Swedish company that is the #1 distributor of sanitary, heating, and plumbing supplies
- Plafometal, a French manufacturer of suspended metal ceilings
2003
- PUM Plastiques, a French company making plastic materials for the construction industry
- Dubois Materiaux, a construction materials distributor in France
- Took control of Toshiba Monofrax, a joint venture of Toshiba Ceramics and Saint Gobain
And so on for the past ten years. The company has also acquired scores of small distributors and materials specialist companies in the last few years, and made a major move into Eastern Europe.
In a imilar vein, loom at the expanding Wolesley Group.
6:14:04 PM 
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