Mutares Stock Stays Stuck as SABIC Megadeal Nears and Q1 Revenue Hits €1.7 Billion

Mutares nears $450M acquisition of SABIC's engineering plastics unit, adding $2.5B revenue. Stock lags despite analyst upside targets of 50%+.

Mutares is engineering the biggest transformation in its history, yet the stock market has barely flinched. The Munich-based industrial holding is on the verge of acquiring SABIC’s engineering plastics business for around $450 million — a deal that would add roughly $2.5 billion in annual revenue and create an entirely new specialty chemicals division. But shares closed Friday at €26.35, a meager 0.19% gain on the day, leaving them down 11.87% since the start of the year and 20.15% lower over the past twelve months.

The transaction, expected to close by the end of June, has already cleared antitrust and merger control reviews in approximately 20 countries. It brings eight production plants in the Americas and Europe, along with around 2,900 employees, into the Mutares orbit. Management is preparing for thorough restructuring once the deal is finalised. The acquired operations will anchor a new specialty chemicals segment from 2026, which will also incorporate existing holdings such as Greer Steel. That unit already contributed initial revenue in the first quarter.

The push into chemicals dovetails with a broader expansion in the United States. Mutares already runs an office in Chicago and is planning a second U.S. location. Its American pipeline includes potential takeover targets with revenue in the billions. The plastics business is being built to tap demand from the healthcare sector and the construction of AI data centres, both seen as high-growth markets.

Operationally, the group is gaining momentum. First-quarter consolidated revenue came in at €1,678.7 million, fuelled by heavy acquisition activity in recent months. The infrastructure and defence segment shone brightest, generating €455 million in sales, a solid year-on-year increase. Adjusted EBITDA reached €11.1 million, while market capitalisation stood at roughly €678 million. The original target of reaching €10 billion in group revenue by 2028 now looks conservative — the board expects to hit that milestone earlier than planned.

Analysts see plenty of upside in the stock. Warburg Research reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on May 15 with a price target of €46.00. Jefferies remains positive at €37.00. The average of those targets implies more than 50% potential upside from current levels, a gap that underscores the market’s persistent scepticism. The shares are trading 9.58% below their long-term moving average as well.

Recent portfolio moves underline the buy-fix-sell model in action. On May 12, Mutares completed the sale of Relobus to Infracapital. A week earlier, Peugeot Motocycles was transferred to management. On May 8, the company launched a voluntary tender offer for its 2027 bond. On the shareholder returns front, a dividend of €2.00 per share is planned, with an ex-date of July 6, 2026. Five further acquisition closings are on the agenda for the current second quarter.

A research note from Kearney recently estimated that roughly one in ten European companies is currently in financial distress — a backdrop that could broaden Mutares’ pipeline of potential takeovers. The macroeconomic calendar for the week starting May 18 includes purchasing managers’ indices, German GDP data and the Ifo index, all of which offer clues about the industrial environment from which Mutares draws many of its distressed cases. From a technical perspective, the first resistance sits at €27.27. Until the stock breaks above that level, the recent recovery remains fragile — even if the analyst targets point to a much brighter picture ahead.