Wienerberger acquires Meridian Brick to become leading supplier of masonry solutions in North America

• The acquisition will immediately double Wienerberger’s North American revenues to > $ 800 million
• Strong value-enhancing acquisition offering significant synergy potential: expected EBITDA for North America > $ 120 million post synergies by 2023
• Customers gain access to an even greater range of building solutions with a strong focus on sustainability

Vienna - The Wienerberger Group, a leading international provider of building material and infrastructure solutions, announces today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Meridian Brick from Boral and an affiliate of Lone Star Funds for purchase price of $ 250 million, subject to customary adjustments.

Meridian Brick: A Leader in the USA with a Strong Position in Canada

Based in Georgia, USA, Meridian Brick is the largest manufacturer of clay façade solutions by capacity in the USA and has a strong position in the Canada region. Meridian is a leading masonry supplier in key regions such as Texas, South East USA, and Ontario, the largest brick consuming area in Canada. Its product portfolio includes innovative systems for the building envelope for residential and commercial applications, including renovation. With more than 1,000 employees operating in 20 manufacturing plants across the USA and Canada, Meridian Brick generated revenues in excess of $ 400 million in the financial year to June 30, 2020.

Strong Strategic and Financial Logic

This acquisition marks a significant step in Wienerberger’s value-driven growth strategy and will establish the Group as the North American leader for innovative and sustainable masonry solutions. Through the acquisition of Meridian Brick, Wienerberger immediately doubles the revenues of its North America business to more than $ 800 million, further increasing its ability to benefit from strong demand in both the new build and renovation segments. Meridian Brick extends Wienerberger’s geographical footprint to Texas, the largest brick consuming state in the USA, and adds a local presence in highly attractive metropolitan regions. It will be fully integrated into Wienerberger’s existing North America Business Unit, General Shale.

Meridian Brick is highly complementary to Wienerberger’s existing solutions portfolio, reinforcing Wienerberger’s position in new and attractive applications. The combination of Meridian’s innovative products, technical know-how and nationwide integrated partnership distribution model with General Shale’s robust commercial platform and systems solution competence represents a significant value creation opportunity. Wienerberger will be able to offer its customers an even greater range of complete solutions for construction and renovation of residential buildings and grow its exposure to commercial properties.

Wienerberger expects to benefit from significant synergies, including through optimization of the production and distribution network, implementation of further operational excellence measures across the combined business and improvements in ESG performance. Run-rate EBITDA synergies of $ 20 million are expected by 2023 resulting in a combined synergized EBITDA of > $120 million.

Heimo Scheuch, CEO of Wienerberger Group commented:

Transaction Details

Completion is targeted to occur in the first half of 2021, subject to competition clearance and satisfaction of other conditions typical for a transaction of this nature. The transaction consideration will be financed from existing credit lines. Following completion of the acquisition, Wienerberger will retain a strong balance sheet and liquidity position and expects the ratio of net debt to EBITDA to be comfortably ~ 2.0x at year-end 2020.

A conference call will be hosted at 2pm CET.