Russian in £8.7m Stirling takeover

Stirling-based insulation maker Superglass Holdings has agreed to be bought by Cyprus-based investment company Inflection Management Corp for £8.7 million.

Inflection is wholly owned by Mr Sergey Kolesnikov, founder of TechnoNICOL, registered in Moscow.

It is a major producer and distributor of insulation systems in Russia, Europe and former Soviet Union states.

It has a network of 47 plants across Russia and Europe but so far its only one in Western Europe is in Italy.

The Stirling plant is significant in the UK market and the deal, including investment plans, gives Superglass the ability to sell TechnoNICOL products and vice versa.

Mr Kolesnikov is sole shareholder of Inflection and president of the TechnoNICOL group of companies.

He wants to make Superglass, a prominent manufacturer of glass wool and mineral fibre insulation, the leading distributor of TechnoNICOL Construction’s products in the UK and Ireland.

All 150 staff and management at Stirling, including chief executive Ken Munro, will be retained.

The Superglass board has unanimously agreed to recommend that Superglass shareholders accept the offer.

Inflection will pay 5.60 pence per share for Superglass, more than double its 2.62p closing price on Tuesday.

Superglass shares were up 90% to 5.00p immediately after the news.

Sergey Kolesnikov said: “This transaction and partnership between Superglass and TechnoNICOL is a strategic opportunity for all parties.

“We are impressed with Superglass’ management team and look forward to working with them.”

Superglass chairman Mark Cubitt said: “This offer is good for all stakeholders in Superglass. For shareholders, it represents an all cash premium of 114% to the pre-deal announcement price.

“For employees it offers the prospect of access to the opportunities of a much larger multinational player... to build on the already significant progress made in the last year under the new management team.”

All 150 posts at Superglass will be retained.