Saint Gobain set to secure controlling stake in Sika

French building materials giant Saint-Gobain has announced plans to take a controlling stake in Swiss construction chemicals firm Sika for €2.3bn despite the opposition of the latter's board.

Saint-Gobain said it will take over Schenker Winkler Holding, which owns 16.1% of Sika's capital and 52.4% of its voting rights, for 2.75bn Swiss francs.

After that, Saint-Gobain will be able to "fully consolidate Sika in its accounts".

The company said it does not intend to launch an offer for Sika's remaining shares.

Sika said in a statement: "The board neither sees the industrial logic in the transaction, nor significant synergies for Sika.

"Furthermore, the board and the group management believe that shareholder value would be impaired as Sika in the planned set-up would not be able to continue its successful growth strategy."

The board said that if the transaction goes through, dependent on anti-trust approval, then they will not longer be in a position to "serve in the best interest of the company and all its stakeholders".

"They have therefore decided to resign following closing of the transaction."

Saint-Gobain also announced on Monday that it will launch a sales process for its glass packaging unit Verallia, which reported sales of €2.44bn in 2013.

A formal bidding process will start based on second-half earnings and a buyer will be sought before the summer of 2015.

“The two transactions – the plan for which we are announcing today – will accelerate the group’s strategic refocus on the design, production and distribution of innovative, high-performance solutions for habitat and industry," said Saint-Gobain's chairman and chief executive Pierre-André de Chalendar.