Kingspan in €700m Belgian firm bid
Shares in specialist building materials group Kingspan rose almost 3% as it said it had offered €700m for the insulation division of Belgian mattress firm Recticel.
Cavan-based Kingspan said the offer was to acquire Recticel's entire insulation and flexible foams divisions, with an agreement with a third party for the disposal of all of the flexible foams businesses if the bid was successful.
Kingspan declined to comment further on whether the bid was related to Brexit and market diversification, but Recticel has insulation manufacturing facilities in the UK, France and Slovenia as well as its native Belgium.
Recticel said its insulation division achieved combined sales of €271.2m in 2018, while its flexible foams division achieved combined sales of €621.5m, Recticel said.
Shares in the firm surged more than 20% in Brussels after the Kingspan bid.
Kingspan has spent more than €1bn in the past two years on acquisitions, bolstering facilities in North and South America.
Speaking in February, chief executive Gene Murtagh said in while the acquisition pipeline was very healthy, the European market remains very unpredictable.
A quarter of Kingspan’s revenues are derived from its UK business.
Mr Murtagh confirmed that while the company branched into new markets in Latin America and India last year, any purchases made this year would likely be focused on continental Europe.
Mr Murtagh was speaking as Kingspan breached the €4bn revenue mark for the first time.
