22 July 1999: Austrian industrial fireproof and insulating materials maker Radex-Heraklith (RHI) said it has bought 90% of Slovakia“s Izomat and will make an offer for the remaining 10% shortly.
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22 July 1999: Austrian industrial fireproof and insulating materials maker Radex-Heraklith (RHI) said it has bought 90% of Slovakia“s Izomat and will make an offer for the remaining 10% shortly. Glass-fibre maker Izomat is the market leader in Slovakia with annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes and 400 employees. RHI would not say how much it had paid, but described the takeover as “one of the biggest foreign undertakings in Slovakia”. The acquisition was made by RHI“s Heraklith division and the group“s Slovenian subsidiary Termo d.d. and is designed to bolster further expansion into the insulation markets of eastern Europe. Including Izomat – which has turnover of around Sch 350 million (US$ 27.87 million) – RHI now operates six glass-fibre plants with annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes. The group“s traditional business and main revenue earner, refractories, or bricks used for lining blast furnaces and in other high-temperature industrial processes – has suffered this year from the downturn in the global steel industry. RHI said in April first quarter sales fell 4% to Sch 4.99 billion, yielding a pre-tax loss of Sch 96 million against a profit of 73 million in the same period a year ago.