Kingspan shows ambitions with Carlisle offer

Kingspan chief executive Gene Murtagh’s ambitions appear to continue to grow.

The Cavan-based insulation firm spent more than €1 billion on acquisitions in 2022, according to its annual report, but now would seem to have greater plans. The company informally approached US peer Carlisle about a possible merger. That deal would have cost several billion – Carlisle had a market capitalisation of €11.6 billion before news of the approach was made public.

While the talks are said to be essentially dormant for now, according to a person familiar with the matter, there is nothing to stop Kingspan seeking to revive the deal. Carlisle, meanwhile, has indicated it could be open to an improved offer.

Whether it’s Carlisle or not, Murtagh is clearly on the hunt for a deal that would transform the company, most likely that will be in the US.

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The US offers the chance of big growth to Kingspan. The Americas accounted for about 22 per cent of its revenue last year, compared with about 72 per cent from Europe. There is the added attraction of access to green subsidies from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which offers companies state aid in a way that is next to impossible in Europe.

A deal would also likely lead to Kingspan listing in some form on a US exchange. That would give it greater access to US investors but could also lead to it becoming the latest big firm to give up it’s listing on Euronext Dublin, as the Irish stock exchange is now known.

Kingspan’s interest in a big deal also shows that the company’s ambitions have not been shrunk by the ongoing fallout from the Grenfell Tower inquiry.

Kingspan’s K15 insulation was used on the tower in which a fire killed 72 people in 2017. However, the Irish business maintains the product was “misused” and it did not know it was supplied to the company that fitted the material to the building. Still, it has been pilloried in the UK after evidence given to the inquiry in 2020.

The company is clearly following generations of fortune seekers, and going west.