French building materials company Saint-Gobain announced on Monday the acquisition of construction chemicals company GCP Applied Technologies, whose products include industrial lubricants for concrete and pallet conveyor applications, for $2.3 billion.
GCP Applied Technologies, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a major global player in specialty construction chemicals, with approximately $1 billion in revenues, 50 manufacturing plants in 38 countries and 1,800 employees, Saint-Gobain said.
GCP’s products are intended to help customers solve construction challenges in residential and commercial building, infrastructure and underground construction. The company is also advancing into the tunneling and mining segments with its most recent products.
Saint-Gobain said in a news release that GCP’s specialty building materials business in North America – accounting for $250 million in sales – will be integrated into Saint-Gobain’s CertainTeed business serving local customers in the Americas Region. All other businesses of GCP, consisting of mainly concrete admixtures and cement additives – accounting for $750 million in sales – will be combined with Saint-Gobain’s Chryso construction chemicals business, which was acquired in September, and will be part of the High Performance Solutions segment.
GCP’s construction products include concrete and cement additives, building materials and technologies that ensure specified quality and enhance business productivity. Its products include release emulsions – suspensions of synthetic lubricants in water – used to enable forms to be removed from precast concrete, and concrete rheology-modifying admixtures that impart lubricity to concrete. The company also makes pallet oil concentrate that, when combined with fuel oil, may be used as a non-staining lubricant for curing systems and that is designed to improve lubricity in pallet conveyors.
“The acquisition of GCP is an excellent and significant step for Saint-Gobain to further reinforce its worldwide leadership in construction chemicals and strengthen its geographic presence in North America and emerging markets,” Benoit Bazin, CEO of Saint-Gobain, said in a news release.