CRH complete Lafarge-Holcim transaction

Dublin-based international building materials group acquires a number of assets for €6.5 billion

ON 2 February 2015, CRH plc announced that they had reached agreement to acquire certain assets from Lafarge SA and Holcim Ltd for a total enterprise value of €6.5 billion. Today the Dublin-based international building materials group has announced the completion of that transaction, with the exception of the Philippines, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2015.

CRH’s chief executive, Albert Manifold (pictured), said: ‘Today we extend a warm welcome to 15,000 new colleagues joining CRH. With their expertise and talent on board, combined with the strength of our existing employee base, CRH is a step closer to achieving our aim of becoming the world’s leading building materials company.

‘The businesses we are acquiring, which represent an excellent geographic fit with CRH’s existing operations, are all strong performers in their respective areas. The integration of these high-quality assets, which we have acquired at an attractive valuation and at the right point of the cycle, will strengthen our presence in a number of key markets as well as providing new platforms for strategic growth. The additional scale will help us to improve efficiency, speed up innovation and provide an even better service to our customers.’

The transaction more than doubles CRH’s cement production volumes and will further expand their aggregates and ready-mixed concrete portfolios. The company becomes the third largest building materials player globally and the world number two in aggregates. Employee numbers will increase by 15,000 people to 91,000.

The acquired assets consist of more than 685 locations in 11 countries and include:

• The largest cement producer in central Canada, which will form an excellent fit with CRH’s existing Americas Materials business, further strengthening the Group’s position in the key North American region
• Major cement and aggregates operations in Western Europe’s three largest markets; Great Britain, France and Germany
• Leading cement and aggregates companies in the growth regions of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), creating a strong regional cluster in which CRH become the number one heavy-side building materials company
• Entry positions of scale in two emerging economic regions – Brazil and the Philippines.