Saint Gobain, a French group involved in construction materials, recently expressed an interest in taking over the majority stake in professional abrasives producer Carbochim Cluj-Napoca, as part of its expansion strategy for the Romanian market, capital market sources say.
Carbochim''s annual turnover comes close to 10 million euros. Shares in the company rose by around 25% on the Bucharest Stock Exchange during the final two days of last week, contributing to a doubling in the company''s share price since last month.
Although contacted by Ziarul Financiar, Saint Gobain representatives had issued no comment by the time this article went to press. The Carbochim Employee Association, which took over the majority stake in the company from the state some six years ago, recently honoured its obligations as part of the privatisation, which sees the employees gain the right to sell the stock they own. (The Employee Association owns a stake of 65% in the company, while the single most important shareholder is SIF Banat-Crisana with 11.9%.)
Carbochim''s management has denied it is planning to sell the majority stake. "There is no question of our selling Carbochim. But if such a time comes, we will make this public. These are only rumours," said Viorel Popovici, general manager of Carbochim.
Sources close to the company, however, say the management recently conducted a poll among its employees to determine the way they could sell their shares: either by selling the entire stake held by the Association, or by distributing the shares to the employees, who will then be able to sell the shares themselves on the stock market.
Saint Gobain has announced an investment plan worth above 100 million euros for the building of a flat glass plant in Calarasi.
Saint Gobain is already involved in the production of abrasive materials through a company in Satu Mare, Saint Gobain Abrazivi, a business it acquired late last year. Saint Gobain runs a number of divisions on the Romanian construction materials market through different companies.
The French group also owns Brodrene Dahl Tulcea, Saint Gobain Conducte, Saint Gobain Glass Romania, Saint Gobain Isover Romania (all three based in Bucharest), as well as Saint Gobain Rompolimer Arad and Saint Gobain Weber Turda.
The group also intends to build a construction materials plant in Ploiesti, from which it hopes to derive an annual turnover of over 20 million euros. The budget for the investment amounts to 40 million euros, including the takeover of DBW Construct.
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