Malvern’s Saint-Gobain Buys U.S. Rival for $1.4 Billion, Tries to Add Customers in Southern States

By

Image via Pete Bannan, MediaNews Group.

Saint-Gobain, the French building materials giant with a North American headquarters in Malvern, has bought its U.S. rival Continental Building Products for $1.4 billion, writes Joseph DiStefano for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The sale comes out to around a third above Continental’s recent stock-market value. The acquired company is expecting to sell around a half-billion dollars’ worth of gypsum-based plasterboard in 2019. These are primarily expected to come from the warm southern states, where Saint-Gobain and its CertainTeed subsidiary, also based in Malvern, are trying to add customers.

“We are very happy to welcome them,” said Pierre-Andre de Chalendar, Saint-Gobain’s CEO.

Continental chairman Ed Bosowski called Saint-Gobain “the ideal strategic partner.”

While it has been expanding its presence in North America, Saint-Gobain also sold some of its businesses in Europe and several other slow-growing markets. So far, the company has raised $1 billion in cash this year from those sales.

Saint-Gobain plans to cut around $50 million in annual expenses as it merges the newly acquired Continental into its gypsum warehousing, purchasing, and sales operations. The company currently has 980 employees in the Philadelphia area.

The deal still has to be approved by Continental shareholders and U.S. regulators.

Read more about the acquisition in The Philadelphia Inquirer here.

[uam_ad id=”80503″]

.

[uam_ad id=”80502″]

Connect With Your Community

Subscribe to stay informed!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Advertisement
Creative Capital logo