Saint-Gobain: 2013 Investor Meeting - Medium-term Strategy

PARIS, November 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Today, Saint-Gobain held a meeting for investors and financial analysts to discuss its medium-term strategy.

Three pillars help drive the Group's strategy

The Group's priority is to focus on high-growth, high value-added markets in habitat and industry.

• Innovative Materials constitute the locomotive of innovation of the Group, in particular thanks to their diversified markets in sustainable habitat and high-tech industrial applications, increasingly co-developed with our customers;
• Construction Products - whose differentiation versus commodity products continues to progress - are seeing their markets grow faster than GDP per capita in both mature and emerging countries. With leadership positions and strong brands, Construction Products have a balanced global presence and spearhead the Group's drive into newly emerging markets;
• Building Distribution with its deep knowledge of local markets, ingrained culture of customer focus and well-recognized brands, holds top-ranking positions on the growing renovation market and provides a strong accelerator for the Habitat strategy.

2013-2018 strategy

Saint-Gobain will continue to roll out its strategy over the next five years, focusing on three main areas:

• Improving the Group's growth potential by focusing more sharply on high value-added, asset-light activities; expanding its footprint in emerging countries; and further strengthening its business portfolio, particularly through the disposal of Verallia;
• Creating a stronger presence in differentiated products and solutions, with R&D efforts focused on local projects co-developed with its customers and on the fast-growing markets of sustainable habitat and industrial applications. Marketing initiatives will also be stepped up with an ambitious digital strategy and by the development of ever stronger brands;
• Continuing to work towards management's priorities of achieving operational excellence, with an additional cost savings plan over 2014-2015; further progress in Corporate Social Responsibility; attractive returns for shareholders; and a persistently solid financial structure.

This vision for Saint-Gobain development going forward is based on strategic leadership positions that will allow the Group to create value for its shareholders and be one of the strongest and best-positioned companies in materials and construction technologies.

2013-2018 strategic goals

For each of these strategic focuses, the Group has set itself the following goals over the next five years:

1. Strengthen the Group's profile to raise its potential for organic growth:
2. Reduce capital intensity in developed countries to 27%-29%
3. Focus investments outside Western Europe so that two-thirds of Innovative Materials and Construction Products industrial assets are located there
4. Complete the Group's business refocus by disposing of Verallia and stepping up small or mid-scale acquisitions: €4bn in acquisitions
5. Focus Building Distribution development on leadership positions

1. Increase the Group's focus on differentiation:
2. Concentrate R&D and marketing on local, co-developed innovations: +50% co-developments and partnerships
3. Improve internal differentiation ratio (to reach 53% of Group sales) and new solutions ratio (target 30% of Innovative Materials and Construction Products sales)
4. Step up development on highly innovative industrial markets to reach between €750m and €1bn in additional sales in new High-Performance Materials niche segments
5. Boost market demand for higher value-added solutions by supporting sustainable construction
6. Enhance the Group's online offer to reach over €1.5bn of sales, or 15% of Building Distribution sales, on the relevant markets in 2018, versus 5% currently
7. Better associate the Group's brands with innovation, with a 5 point increase in average brand awareness

1. Continue to work towards management's priorities:
2. Continuously seek operational excellence: €800m in additional cost savings in 2014-2015
3. Make further progress in the Corporate Social Responsibility area
4. Target attractive returns for shareholders
5. Maintain a solid financial structure

Discover all of the presentations on http://www.saint-gobain.com from 2:30pm onwards.

About Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain, the world leader in habitat markets, designs, manufactures and distributes high-performance building materials, bringing innovative solutions to meet today's global challenges, including growth, energy and the environment. With 2012 sales of €43.2 billion, Saint-Gobain operates in 64 countries and has nearly 193,000 employees. For more information about Saint-Gobain, please visit  http://www.saint-gobain.com.

Analyst/Investor relations

Gaetano TERRASINI
Vivien DARDEL
Alexandra BAUBIGEAT
+33-1-47-62-32-52
+33-1-47-62-44-29
+33-1-47-62-30-93

Press relations

Sophie CHEVALLON Susanne TRABITZSCH
+33-1-47-62-30-48
+33-1-47-62-43-25

SOURCE Saint-Gobain