US go-ahead for Italcementi acquisition
United States Federal Trade Commission provides clearance for proposed acquisition by HeidelbergCement
ON Friday 17 June, HeidelbergCement AG and Italcementi SpA reached an agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission to allow the companies’ merger to proceed on schedule.
The proposed divestment of operations in the US, primarily consisting of Italcementi’s Martinsburg cement plant, in West Virginia, and up to 11 terminals, was accepted by the Federal Trade Commission.
As a result, all competition approvals necessary for closing the Italcementi acquisition have now been obtained.
‘We are very pleased with the positive decision of the Federal Trade Commission,’ said Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. ‘We are now on track to close the acquisition of the 45% stake in Italcementi which we are planning together with Italmobiliare for the beginning of July.’
HeidelbergCement say the divestment process for the assets in US has already started and significant interest has already been recorded.
The planned full acquisition of Italcementi will take place in two steps. With the approvals of the competition authorities now in place, HeidelbergCement will initially acquire a controlling stake of 45% from Italmobiliare SpA. HeidelbergCement will then propose a public mandatory offer to the remaining shareholders for the acquisition of their shares in return for a cash payment.
The exact timing of the subsequent mandatory offer will be announced in due course, but HeidelbergCement say they expect the entire transaction to be completed in the second half of 2016.
