25 February 1999: French glass company Saint-Gobain aims to increase profit before exceptional items by 10% this year and is targeting even higher earnings per share (EPS) growth, its chairman said re…
25 February 1999: French glass company Saint-Gobain aims to increase profit before exceptional items by 10% this year and is targeting even higher earnings per share (EPS) growth, its chairman said recently. “We“ve set ourselves an ambitious target for 1999, to make a profit, excluding exceptionals, of 10%,” Chairman Jean-Louis Beffa said. “Earnings per share should rise 15% because we“ve decided to retire five percent of our shares to respond to our shareholders“ expectations for steady and strong EPS growth,” he said. Beffa added that the group expected improvement in its three main businesses – glass, construction materials, and high performance products – which were hurt in 1998 by financial crises in Asia that led to cuts in investment. Beffa also said Saint-Gobain had become the world“s leading supplier of glass to the auto industry.