Sale of former Vicwest panel plant in Hamilton gets Fed approval
by The Canadian Press
The sale was a condition for approval of Vicwest's takeover by the Kingspan Group
OTTAWA—The sale of a former Vicwest factory in Hamilton to an American company has received Competition Bureau approval.
The buyer is NCI Building Systems Inc. of Houston, which operates plants across the United States and Mexico but none in Ontario.
The competition watchdog had ordered the sale of the Hamilton plant, which makes insulated metal panels for the construction industry, as a condition for approval of Vicwest’s takeover by the Kingspan Group, an Irish company.
“The Bureau determined that NCI, an established producer of insulated metal panels in the United States without manufacturing facilities in Ontario, would be an effective buyer of the Hamilton facility, thereby resolving the likely lessening of competition in the supply of insulated metal panels in Ontario,” the federal agency said Friday.
The Competition Bureau said in May that Ontario’s supply of insulated metal panels would be too concentrated if the plant were acquired by the Kingspan, which agreed to sell the Hamilton operation.
The Hamilton plant was part of Vicwest’s Building Products group, based in Oakville, Ont., which has factories in several provinces and two states that make metal roofing, siding and insulated metal panels for contractors and retailers.
The Dublin-based company—which has operations in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region—agreed last year to buy Vicwest for $244 million and sell Vicwest’s Westeel division for $210 million in cash to a Winnipeg-based company.
