Boral to buy-out Lafarge gypsum JV
18 August 2011
Australia's Boral has agreed to acquire Lafarge's 50% interest in the two company's Lafarge Boral Gypsum Asia (LBGA) joint venture for € 429 million (US$ 613 million). The deal is the third divestment of a gypsum business Lafarge has made in just five weeks, following the sale of its European and South American businesses to Etex for € 1 billion (US$ 1.43 billion) and its Australian business to Knauf for € 120 million (US$ 172 million), both in July. Total proceeds are € 1.55 billion (US$ 2.22 billion).
LBGA is a plasterboard joint venture between Boral and Lafarge set up in 2000. It includes 20 manufacturing operations in eight countries, trading businesses in a further three and exports to more than 30 markets. The businesses total capacity is some 450 million m2 of plasterboard per year.
According to Boral, LBGA has the largest plasterboard network in Asia, with leading market shares in India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as having a foothold in China. It has seen average growth of +10.4% per year since 2001, with plasterboard volumes growing by +7.5% per annum over that period.
Lafarge says that in 2010 LBGA contributed € 181 million (US$ 260 million) to its sales and € 31 million (US$ 44 million) to its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA). Boral added that LBGA is expected to achieve and EBIDTA of US$ 108 million in the 2011-12 fiscal year.
The deal is expected to close before the end of 2011.
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