Australia: Australia’s competition watchdog is investigating Knauf”s proposed US$7bn takeover of Boral’s US-based joint venture partner USG for potential breach of its merger rules. The Boral-USG joint venture is the biggest gypsum wallboard supplier in Australia, followed by CSR. Knauf is third largest, meaning that the takeover would combine the number three and number one providers in Australia.
Boral CEO Mike Kane said that he had formally served a notice of default to Knauf, triggering an automatic review of the value of the joint venture. When the valuation is completed Boral will then decide whether to exercise its right of first refusal over the Asian and Australian joint venture operations. This is expected to be finalised during October 2018.
