Berger Paints gains 12% on Polish buy

MUMBAI: Shares of Berger Paints soared more than 12 per cent after it acquired Poland's Bolix SA from private equity group Advent International late on Monday.

Bolix, a leading provider of external insulation finishing system in Poland, had an annual turnover of $45.5 million in 2007, Berger said in a filing to the BSE.

EIFS is a comprehensive solution for meeting both the insulation and decorative requirements of external walls of buildings. Besides producing insulation materials like polystyrene foam, mineral wool and auxiliary materials, such as fibre glass meshes, Bolix's products include adhesives, mortars, plasters, primers and paints, the filing added.

"Bolix represents the foray of Berger in the EU... Berger will support Bolix in furthering its business in parts of Europe including Russia and will also explore marketing of EIFS in India, where it is yet to be introduced", Berger chairman K S Dhingra said.

At 11:10 am, Berger Paints shares were up 8.74 per cent at Rs 43.55 after touching a high of Rs 45.50 in trade so far. The counter clocked a volume of 1,29,982 shares against two-week average of 11,402 shares.