Moderating inflation and rates: How to position for upside; Buy Sika, Rockwool

Research evidence excerpt

Moderating inflation and rates: How to position for upside; Buy Sika, Rockwool

Equity Research

29 June 2026 | 5:29AM BST

EUROPE BUILDING MATERIALS

Moderating inflation and rates: How to position for upside; Buy Sika,

Rockwool

In the last month European Building Materials names are up +5-15% as the Middle Ben Rada Martin

+44(20)7051-0800 |

East conflict de-escalates, reflecting the sector’s cost sensitivity to energy inflation ben.radamartin@gs.com

Goldman Sachs International

and demand sensitivity to drops in government yields. With oil now back at pre-war

Natasha Phillipslevels, we believe price/cost scenarios skew to the upside for products that realise +44(20)7051-4705 |

pricing into more limited inflation. natasha.phillips@gs.comGoldman Sachs International

Patrick CreusetWe see lightside building materials names (Sika, Saint Gobain, Rockwool) as most +33(1)4212-1380 |

exposed to this upside risk, the inverse of their negative exposure to inflation (see patrick.creuset@gs.comGoldman Sachs Bank Europe SE - Paris

our March 2026 note), with 2x higher earnings upside relative to the heavyside Branch

names in our scenarios Exhibit 1. We argue not all energy intensive costs are

deflating and not all price increases are being realised - with a preference for

being selective in this backdrop, especially as end-market volumes outside of Infra

and data centres are likely to remain tepid.

Our key name for exposure to this dynamic remains Sika (Buy) given 2/3rds of

COGS are oil derivatives, which are moderating the fastest of input costs, and early

reads on pricing are somewhat positive (GS conference feedback, PPI). For Rockwool

(Buy), we see potential price/cost upside if gas/electricity prices moderate and