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One of the most significant international agreements in the history of Greek companies will be signed today, as Greece’s S&B, owned by Catherine Kyriakopoulos’ family will be acquired by the largest company for industrial minerals in the world, France’s Imerys. After the merger, the Greek company will control 4.5% of the French giant and former president of the Association of Greek Industrialists Odysseas Kyriakopoulos will become a board member of Imerys.

In an exclusive statement for the Greek newspaper "Kathimerini", he states, "The talks with the French group lasted six months. The aim of the management was to ensure the future development of S&B. The company's activities in Greece will continue with no interference in its functions. The merger includes all activities of S&B with the exception of bauxite." According to Odysseas Kyriakopoulos, the value of the agreement will exceed the sum of 550 million euro.

The French giant in the field of minerals extraction informed the French Securities and Exchange Commission on the deal late on Tuesday afternoon, as its shares are part of the large capitalisation securities that make up the stock index Cac 40. The capitalisation of Imerys on the French market is about 4 billion euro. As stated by Odysseas Kyriakopoulos for "Kathimerini", the French group has a strong liquidity base, which is evidenced by the fact that the interest rate on its corporate bonds does not exceed 3.1% percent. By comparison, the interest of S&B corporate bond exceeds 9%.

Imerys company was founded in 1880 and for many years, its name was Imetal. It was created by the Rothschild family by grouping several of their subsidiary companies in the field of the metals and mining industry.

The initial activity of the group was nickel extraction and processing, and its name Société Penarroya-Le Nickel (SLN). In the 1970s, the group expanded its activities.

After 1990, Imetal focused on the industrial minerals sector and company take-overs. Later, through the purchase of companies, it expanded in the sectors of refractories, clay, ceramic units and technical ceramics.

Imetal was renamed Imerys on 22 September 1999.

Today, the French group is present in more than 50 countries with more than 250 industrial sites. It manages more than 120 mines and exports 30 different types of minerals and mineral groups. In 2012, the group had sales of over 3.9 billion euro. Imerys' headquarters is in Paris and it employees a total of 16,000 people.