DAVY VIEW

The Saint-Gobain Sika saga has finally come to an end with Saint-Gobain (SGO) selling its entire 10.75% stake in the company. With the two-year lock-up recently expired, speculation had been building that a sale was imminent. The transaction makes sense, generating gross proceeds of c.€2.4bn, where SGO had no realistic chance of gaining control at Sika. Reputationally, the effort to effectively takeout Sika by acquiring majority voting control did little for SGO. However, financially it worked out well for SGO shareholders and a management team which tends to be heavily scrutinised for its capital allocation decisions.