Owens Corning sets two-phase, $90 million Masonry Products sale to Boral

Sources: Owens Corning, Toledo, Ohio; Boral Industries Ltd., Sydney

By Don Marsh

A company best known for building materials between interior and exterior faces is exiting precast concrete stone veneer via a dominant player in wall and roof finishes.

Insulation giant Owens Corning has scheduled by year’s end the sale of a 50 percent stake in its Cultured Stone-anchored Masonry Products business to Boral Ltd., the Australian parent of Atlanta-based Boral USA and its Boral Bricks and MonierLifetile brands. A definitive agreement announced December 21 calls for Boral to acquire the stake for $45 million; operate the newly named Boral Stone Products jointly with Owens Corning for three years; and, consolidate its holding in early-2014 for a minimum $45 million payment, subject to a premium reflecting 2013 financial performance.

After more than a decade of Cultured Stone ownership, Owens Corning has parlayed the brand with ProStone and Versetta Stone line extensions, serving a broad dealer network from South Carolina and California plants. The Boral deal carries a $115 million impairment charge to the seller, owing to goodwill and intangible-asset accounting measures assigned to the Masonry Products business in 2006. They would appear to include investments such as a $16 million plant upgrade timed with the 2005-05 residential building boom peak.