- BPB plc
BPB plc was a British company whose main trading name was British Gypsum and which was the world's largest manufacturer of
plasterboard until it was taken over bySaint-Gobain of France in 2005. The company first floated on theLondon Stock Exchange in 1935 and was one of the original constituents of theFTSE 100 Index .Plasterboard is mainly used for internal partition walls. BPB's other products include insulating materials, fastenings, decorative wall covering and ceiling components.
BPB is one of the top three players in the plasterboard market in the United States. In Europe its main rivals are
Lafarge of France andKnauf of Germany.BPB's turnover for the year ended
31 March 2005 was £2,316.8 million. Profit before tax was £258.7 million and net profit was £182.3 million.BPB regained its place in the
FTSE 100 Index in June 2005 after an absence of fourteen years. In August 2005 BPB received ahostile takeover bid from the French companySaint-Gobain , which set a price of 720 pence per share. The board initially resisted this strongly, but eventually accepted revised bid of 775 pence per share, which valued the company at £3.9billion (US$ 6.7 billion). [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4444686.stm] BPB was delisted in December 2005.External links
* [http://www.bpb.com/ Official site]
* [http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=BPB.L Profile from Yahoo]
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