CRH feeling the strain ahead of meeting to vote on acquisition
THE DISRUPTION to Holcim and Lafarge’s proposed merger will have an impact across the market, perhaps nowhere more so than at Irish building materials firm CRH.
In February, it was announced that CRH was to buy the assets that Holcim and Lafarge were discarding, in a deal worth €6.5bn (£4.6bn).
Given that the merger has now been cast in doubt, CRH investors are understandably rattled. When CRH confirmed the acquisition, its shares shot up – yesterday, they closed down by 4.42 per cent.
The company declined to comment on the issue yesterday, other than to confirm that an extraordinary general meeting to approve the purchase of the Holcim-Lafarge assets would go ahead as planned on Thursday.
The two cement companies were forced to sell off various subsidiaries in an effort to avoid scrutiny over competition issues. Dublin-based CRH beat a €5.5bn offer from a consortium headed by Blackstone.