German cosmetics, detergents and adhesives group Henkel AG will focus future expansion efforts on the US and Asian markets, its chief executive said in a newspaper interview.
"We will expand in all divisions, with an emphasis on the United States and Asia," Ulrich Lehner said, according to the text of an interview with Welt am Sonntag released on Saturday.
Henkel agreed to buy Sovereign Specialty Chemicals Inc, a US supplier of specialty adhesives, sealants and assembly adhesives, for about $575 million earlier this month.
That followed the completion of its biggest ever acquisition in March, the purchase of US rival Dial for $2.8 billion.
Henkel, home to consumer brands such as Pritt and Schwarzkopf but also a provider of adhesives, sealants and surface technologies to industrial customers, needed a global presence and proximity to its clients, Lehner said.
"Markets are on the move," Lehner said, pointing to the relocation of production facilities from south-east Asia to China and from west to east within Europe. "We have to follow such movements as an important supplier, for example to the automotive and electronics industries."
Lehner said he expected the US market to develop more positively than Europe in the next few years. Henkel now generated 25 percent of turnover in the US, up from 12 percent in 2003, he added.