Page 40 - HW FEBRUARY 2022

global eyes
Business bits &
pieces
Sika looks to buy MBCC – Sika AG
is currently going through approval processes towards buying high profile construction chemical group MBCC (formerly BASF Construction Chemicals) for 5.5 billion Swiss Francs.
With sales of around €2.7 billion
last FY, MBCC Group is headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, has some 7,500 employees and 130+ production facilities across operations in 60+ countries.
Sika says of the move: “The acquisition will complement and broaden Sika’s product and solution offerings in four
of five core technologies and seven of eight Sika Target Markets and will further strengthen its geographic footprint.”
New Zealand’s Commerce Commission is currently scheduled to make a decision on whether or not to give clearance to the Proposed Acquisition by 16 March this year.
www.sika.com
Henkel merges consumer businesses
– Meanwhile, Henkel Group plans to merge its Laundry & Home Care and Beauty Care divisions to create a new Consumer Brands business unit.
The new multi-category platform will be worth around €10 billion of annual sales, or almost half of Henkel Group’s overall reported top line in its last FY.
Henkel’s Adhesive Technologies business meanwhile recorded sales of €9,641 million in FY2021, representing growth of 13.4%.
www.henkel.com
The democratisation of solar
DOMESTIC SOLAR ENERGY in the US is coming down in price, with new technology and an original approach to making renewable energy more widely affordable.
The new technology comes from GAF Energy, a subsidiary of Standard Industries and sister company to GAF, North America’s largest roofing and waterproofing manufacturer, which has introduced a new solar shingle, called Timberline Solar (photos above).
The difference is that Timberline can be installed with a nail gun directly onto a roof, without special underlays or advanced electrical skills, at the same time as a new roof goes on, the new solar shingles being compatible with standard GAF shingles.
All of which makes for much faster installation and means the cost of Timberline Solar could be half the cost of say Tesla’s solar roof or other rack- mounted systems.
Another interesting solar energy initiative from the US has come about following the destruction and disruption caused by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina around the New Orleans region.
Six years later, in 2011, local
entrepreneur Thomas Neyhart founded PosiGen, aiming to get renewable energy into less affluent homes, often the homes most affected by Katrina.
Thanks to solar tax credits which are available in many states, it is possible to get loans for solar panels, which PosiGen then leases to homeowners.
For PosiGen’s system to work, however, it also has to save the homeowners a significant amount on running costs (more than the lease cost of the solar panels!), so the company also often undertakes an energy-efficiency retrofit, sealing gaps and air leaks, adding insulation, programmable thermostats and LED lighting.
The solar alone can bring energy savings of the order of 30-80%, according to PosiGen,
In 2020, it’s reported that the average PosiGen customer saved nearly US$600
a year on utility bills and PosiGen’s credibility has steadily grown to the point where funding is now significant and thousands of low-income homes have benefitted from the program.
www.gaf.energy www.posigen.com
38 NZHJ | FEBRUARY 2022
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