Greek Banks Set for First Payouts Since 2008 on ECB Approval
The European Central Bank will allow Greek banks to make their first shareholder payouts in over a decade as the country emerges from a painful post-crisis restructuring.
Latest Videos
The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon.
The European Central Bank will allow Greek banks to make their first shareholder payouts in over a decade as the country emerges from a painful post-crisis restructuring.
China’s protracted property downturn is eroding the balance sheets of the nation’s largest state banks as their bad loans creep up.
Embattled German landlord Adler Group SA has asked its bondholders for permission to sell an unfinished apartment development at a 47% discount to its 2022 valuation, as the company races to repay its vast debt load.
Two years ago, Dubai became a hot favorite with Russians looking to park money or build new lives after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. That allure is now dimming as the cost of living in the glitzy emirate surges and its banks get stricter in enforcing US sanctions.
The Bank of Korea warned Thursday that a further slump in the real estate sector would undermine broader economic activity, as it pointed to worsening delinquencies among developers in the latest signal of continuing woes in the credit market.
Dec 6, 2021
Bloomberg News
,(Bloomberg) -- French building materials maker Cie. de Saint-Gobain agreed to buy U.S. specialty construction chemicals maker GCP Applied Technologies Inc. for about $2.3 billion in a bet on growth from U.S. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan.
Investors will receive $32 for every GCP Applied share in a deal financed through cash, Saint-Gobain said Monday. That’s 18% higher than Friday’s closing price. Bloomberg reported last week that Saint-Gobain was among suitors considering the purchase.
“We are very confident in the American market,” Chief Executive Officer Benoit Bazin said on a call with reporters, noting the U.S. administration’s ambitious spending plans on infrastructure will fuel demand for cement and other materials.
Saint-Gobain has pushed aggressively into the North American market in recent years, agreeing to buy U.S. drywall maker Continental Building Products Inc. in a deal worth $1.4 billion, including debt, in 2019 and laying plans for new factories in the region. Bazin said he’s had his eye on GCP for several years.
Saint-Gobain rose as much as 1.6% in Paris. The shares have climbed 56% this year.
Construction Dealmaking
The accord is further evidence dealmaking in the industry is heating up as construction rebounds from the worst of the pandemic last year. European rival Sika AG agreed in November to acquire MBCC Group, the former construction-chemicals unit of BASF SE, for 5.5 billion Swiss francs ($6 billion). That deal built on Sika’s 2019 purchase of mortars business Parex Group for 2.5 billion Swiss francs.
GCP conducted a strategic review in 2019 but failed to find a buyer. Saint-Gobain on Monday said it would keep GCP’s turnaround plan, made more solid by new management after years of turmoil. This will help extract synergies worth $85 million including in roofing and building facades. It expects the deal to close by the of next year.
For Saint-Gobain, an acquisition of GCP Applied would build on its recent purchase of Chryso, a French construction chemicals business, for 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion). The deal would bolster the group’s position in construction chemicals, a technology that Bazin said can dramatically lower carbon emissions in products like cement through the use of additives.
GCP has about $1 billion in annual revenue and 50 manufacturing sites in 38 countries, employing around 1,800 people, according to the statement.
(Updates with shares in fifth paragraph)
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.