Saint-Gobain to Acquire Building Products of Canada Corp.

French conglomerate secures Canadian building envelope marketplace through the purchase; deepens roots in North America.

Saint-Gobain_TOF Image.png — The all-cash deal by Saint-Gobain to purchase privately-owned Building Products of Canada Corp. for 994 million Canadian dollars means the French company will have reach throughout Canada’s entire building envelope manufacturing sector.
— Image courtesy of Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain, the French multinational and parent company of shingle manufacturer CertainTeed, said it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-own Building Products of Canada Corp, a roofing shingles and insulation panels manufacturer in Canada, for nearly $1 billion in cash.

The $994 million-Canadian deal, announced on June 12, solidifies Saint-Gobain’s manufacturing beachhead in the Canadian marketplace and further expands its footprint in North America, having acquired GCP Technologies in the United States last year.

With the addition of Building Products of Canada, Saint-Gobain now becomes a principal supplier of most exterior building products to the Canadian construction industry following its acquisition of siding producer Kaycan in 2022.

Along with its North American flagship brand, CertainTeed Canada, Saint-Gobain, which employs roughly 170,000 people worldwide, now runs the table on both interior — gypsum, insulation, ceilings — and exterior — roofing, siding, underlayment — materials manufacturing.

Building Products of Canada has some 460 employees and three manufacturing plants in Montreal, Edmonton and Pong-Rouge, where it produces roof shingles and insulation panels, among other construction products. It sells through more than 1,200 points of sale across home center retailers and specialty distribution channels.

The company said the acquisition met its strategic and financial criteria outlined in its “Grow & Impact” plan to create value and synergies for shareholder returns.

In a news release, Saint-Gobain said the Building Products of Canada acquisition should create value for the company by year three following the transaction’s close, expected before the end of 2023, and will be earnings-per-share accretive from year one.

Of the deal, Saint-Gobain CEO Benoit Bazin said acquiring Building Products of Canada allows the company to establish a leading position in Canada’s roofing sector and completes the concern’s product offerings for the building envelope space.

“[The acquisition] reinforces our position in North America and builds on our many proven successes in this region over the last four years,” Bazin’s statement said, in part. “It will create significant value for shareholders, enhance the profitable growth outlook of the Group, enrich our solutions to better serve our customers and provide attractive development opportunities for both the Building Products of Canada and Saint-Gobain teams.”

RBC Capital Markets, LLC is acting as Saint-Gobain’s financial advisor, while Deloitte Corporate Finance Inc is advising for Building Products of Canada.

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Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR).

Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction, and community issues. He has worked at Adweek, managed a community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and reported on finance, law, and real estate for the San Diego Daily Transcript. He later served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and was managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage.

Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure projects, new products and business.