Warming-up for large-scale buy-outs

Kingspan is intent on making further large-scale acquisitions in Europe and north America this year, with the company capable of absorbing takeover costs of over €300m.

Speaking on the back of a better-than-expected set of full-year results, for 2013, yesterday, the specialist building materials group’s chief executive, Gene Murtagh, said “a very healthy pipeline of opportunities” exists for the company, and management was “disappointed” not to have been able to conduct some acquisition business since the beginning of last year.

“We’re absolutely looking for acquisitions but they have to be absolutely right,” Mr Murtagh said, adding that, if anything, Kingspan is even more capable of absorbing the costs of a big money deal than it was even at the halfway point of last year.