Concrete defence

8 January 2019 By Ed Cropley Follow @edwardcropley

The Swiss chemicals firm is paying $2.6 bln for France’s Parex. After a lengthy battle with Saint-Gobain, bulking up to dissuade further approaches makes sense. Relying on revenue synergies to make a decent return on its new deal removes some of the gloss, though.

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Swiss chemicals company Sika agreed on Jan. 8 to buy French rival Parex in a $2.6 billion deal, as it seeks to step up consolidation in the building materials market.

Sika reported higher full-year sales of 7.1 billion Swiss francs for 2018, and forecast sales growth of 6 to 8 percent for this year. It predicted operating profit for 2018 in the range of 940 million to 960 million Swiss francs.

Sika shares fell as much as 4.7 percent on Jan. 8. By 1513 GMT they were down 2.7 percent at 122 Swiss francs.

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