CEMEX in talks with CRH over divestitures

CEMEX announced this week that they are currently in negotiations with CRH plc, the Dublin-based international building materials group, that may lead to the divestiture of certain CEMEX assets located in the US and Europe. The assets under negotiation include those operations in Florida and Arizona that the US Department of Justice has required CEMEX to divest as a result of the company’s recent acquisition of Rinker.

In addition, CRH are in negotiations to acquire from CEMEX some or all of the following US assets: CEMEX’s concrete pipe business; the company’s materials and concrete products operations in the Pacific Northwest, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas; aggregates operations in Kentucky; cement plants in Wampum, Pennsylvania and Fairborn, Ohio; and CEMEX’s gypsum wallboard distribution business in Florida.

In Europe, the assets under negotiation include the San Feliu cement plant in Catalonia, Spain, and CEMEX’s ready-mixed concrete and aggregates assets in Austria and Hungary.

The completion of any transaction will be subject to satisfactory due diligence, the approval of the respective boards of directors and the granting of the required regulatory approvals. Depending on the scale of businesses included in any potential deal, it is understood that the total value of the transaction could range from US$3.5 billion to US$4.5 billion (£1.75 billion to £2.25 billion).

CRH say they have sufficient balance sheet capacity to debt-finance any transaction that might take place.