Saint-Gobain has all antitrust approvals in place for acquisition Sika

The announcement follows final receipt of unconditional approval from the CADE, Brazil’s competition authority, for the acquisition of control of Sika. It is in line with the unconditional approvals that Saint-Gobain has already received for the acquisition, including those from Switzerland and the European Commission.

The European Commission, an independent and impartial authority, concluded earlier this year that “Sika and Saint-Gobain do not generally seem to be close competitors as their offerings are rather complementary in terms of quality and brand perception” (item 42, page 10 of the Commission decision). These statements totally support the Saint-Gobain and Sika’s strategic fit in terms of products, applications, geographic locations and distribution channels. They confirm the transaction’s industrial logic together with Saint-Gobain’s ability, when working together with Sika, to generate additional revenues and synergies for the benefit of Sika and Saint-Gobain shareholders.

The unconditional issuance of all pre-closing antitrust approvals follows the collapse of other arguments used by Sika’s board to delay the closing of the transaction: the TOB (Swiss Takeover Board) and FINMA (Swiss financial markets authority) have both repeatedly confirmed that they have no reservations as regards the application of the opt-out clause thus evidencing that Saint-Gobain has totally respected Swiss law; FINMA also confirmed that Saint-Gobain and the Burkard family do not form a group.

Sika’s board members continue to uphold their opposition to the transaction beyond their statutory powers. “Saint-Gobain is respectfully and confidently waiting for the Swiss courts to allow Schenker-Winkler Holding (SWH) to regain its property rights and close the deal. Saint-Gobain has extended its agreement with the family and its hedging contracts and is determined to pursue this value-creating transaction for both groups,” it said.