Lasselsberger SA goes shopping in Italy

Lasselsberger SA, the former Cesarom Bucharest, intends to take over the controlling interests in ceramic floor and wall tiles manufacturer Ligure based in Italy, with both companies being part of the Austrian Lasselsberger Group. Sources close to this deal say that talks are now in a preliminary stage. Funding for the acquisition will come from a loan taken out from the Austrian bank Raiffeisen. Lasselsberger SA officials did not care to provide any comments by the time of going to press. Lasselsberger took over the main manufacturers of wall and floor tiles on the domestic market, Sanex Cluj-Napoca and Cesarom Bucharest last year, after the latter had already acquired the ceramic tile unit of Mondial Lugoj, the third player on the market. The three factories have a production capacity of more than 13 million square metres, of which Sanex represents 6.6 million square metres, the factory in Bucharest 4.5 million square metres, and with 2.1 million square metres at Lugoj. According to certain estimates, the ceramic tile market will increase by some 10% this year, to a volume of about 27 million square metres, with about half of the total sales to consist in imported products. Imports are putting increasing pressure on the domestic market. ZF