Irish construction materials producer CRH has entered exclusive negotiations to buy the assets owned by the French company Lafarge and Swiss group Holcim.

These include Lafarge’s two cements plants in Romania.  The deal is estimated at EUR 6.5 billion.

"The transaction is a major step in creating the company LafargeHolcim," said Wolfgang Reitzle, the proposed president for the future LafargeHolcim, cited by local Capital.ro.

Following this acquisition, the Irish group CRH will climb to the third position in the ranking of the world largest cement producers.

CRH, which also owns the companies Ferrobeton and Elpreco in Romania, will finance the acquisition with EUR 2 billion from its funds and a credit line.

The company will purchase 24 plants from the two cement manufacturers. These facilities have a production capacity of 36 million tons per year, while the produced volumes amount to 23 million per year.

CRH will take over 15,000 employees.

Lafarge has announced it would sell all its assets in Romania, to reduce market share before merging with Holcim. It has two factories, at Medgidia and Hoghiz, and a grinding station in Târgu Jiu, which bring it a 33% market share.

editor@romania-insider.com