Breedon eyes up UK assets freed in Lafarge-Holcim mega merger
BREEDON Aggregates said yesterday that it would be interested in UK assets sold as part of the Lafarge Holcim merger.
The world’s two largest cement companies, France’s Lafarge and Switzerland’s Holcim, confirmed the “merger of equals” on Monday, which will create a cement giant with sales of €32bn (£26.5bn).
The firms are planning £4bn of divestments to ease the concerns of competition regulators, with aggregates assets in the UK expected to be put on the block.
“The deal is a long way off completion, but we’re certainly interested in principle,” a spokesperson from Breedon told City A.M. “They’d have to be at the right price and add value to our company.”
The Aim-listed aggregates firm has a long history of bolt-on acquisitions and spent £54m buying assets from Holcim’s UK firm Aggregate Industries and Marshall’s quarries last year, funded by a share placing.
Hope Construction Materials, another firm mooted as a possible buyer, said the merger “could give rise to some good opportunities” and that it would “be keeping an eye on how things evolve”.
FTSE 250 building supplies firm CRH declined to comment.