Word: gobain
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...weeks the walls of Paris and the sides of its ancient buses had been plastered with huge red posters bearing the reassuring message: "Saint-Gobain . . . a trustworthy trademark." Day after day, France's most aristocratic company, which was set up in 1665 by Louis XIV to make the glass for Versailles, blared its virtues in unheard-of fashion for French corporations-double-truck newspaper ads, regular radio and television appearances. Since Christmas, France has experienced what in the business world is something like the student-worker upheaval of last May and June. Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, Europe...
Frontal Attack. Superficially, BSN's attempt looked absurd. Saint-Gobain produces 22% of the world's plate glass, has extensive interests in chemicals, nuclear energy, cardboard and paper. The company has annual sales of glass and other products totaling $1 billion, almost five times BSN's. But Saint-Gobain's current reputation glitters less than its history. Under the presidency of Count Arnaud de Vogüé, 64, the company lagged behind BSN in adopting the float-glass process that revolutionized glassmaking a decade ago. On the other hand, BSN, which was formed when two firms...
Rebuffed in merger feelers toward Saint-Gobain, BSN quietly bought 10% of its competitor's 11.5 million shares. Then, in December, Riboud sprang his frontal attack. Backed by three big banking houses, BSN offered to exchange convertible debentures with a face value of $46 for Saint-Gobain common stock, then selling for $29. Such tactics, common in the U.S. and Great Britain, had never before been tried in France. Much to BSN's surprise, Saint-Gobain did not take long to fight back strongly...
...rivals fired public-relations broadsides at each other, Vogüé dropped Saint-Gobain's traditional secrecy about company finances and prospects and wooed its long-ignored and meagerly rewarded stockholders with good news. He promised a 25% stock dividend and predicted that profits would double by 1971 to $50 million. His unprecedented Sunday open house drew tens of thousands of fascinated Frenchmen to S-G plants all over France...
Mysterious Friends. BSN was not defeated, however, by Vogüé's $1,000,000 massive public-relations effort, but by mysterious Saint-Gobain "friends" with strong financial connections abroad. As soon as BSN announced its bid, Vogüé's allies started buying Saint-Gobain stock. In five weeks, some 4,600,000 Saint-Gobain shares changed hands at prices that climbed all the way to $48. Vogüé's "friends" paid $180 million for 3,500,000 shares, bringing their holdings to 42% of the company's stock, more than enough to assure...