Lasselsberger owns three tile makers

Austrian Lasselsberger Group, one of the largest family businesses on the European construction supplies market, has acquired in only five months all three major producers of ceramic tiles in Romania. Following the acquisition of Sanex Cluj and Mondial Lugoj, the Austrians at the end of last week managed to take control of Hungarian Zalakeramia Group, which owns Cesarom Bucharest, the second top producer of ceramic tiles in Romania. Lasselsberger paid 25.5 million euros (Ft6.3 billion) for 50.1% in Zalakeramia, owned by Hungarian AEB Bank. AEB is known as “the Hungarian banking arm of Russian Gazprom Group,” according to Russian press agency Interfax. Lasselsberger, whose annual turnover reaches about 700 million euros, will this way directly control over half of the Romanian ceramic tiles market, which was last year estimated at about 110-115 million euros. ZF