Tarmac and Lafarge set to sell building assets

Tarmac and Lafarge are set to sell £400 million of assets including quarries and cement works.

The asset sale is to satisfy competition ruling about their agreed merger to create a formidable £1.8 billion building materials business with a workforce of 7,000.

The £400 million asset sell off is to include a large cement plant at Hope, Derbyshire, the nearby Dowlow quarry, several ready-mix concrete plants and six aggregates quarries. Tarmac’s share of two quarries and several asphalt plants are also to be sold, which are owned through its Midlands Quarry Products - a joint venture with Hanson.

Peel Hunt analyst Robin Hardy told the Sunday Times that the asset portfolio “forms an almost complete business with cement, aggregates and ready-mixed concrete holding a 10 per cent to 12 per cent market share.”

Strong candidates for the purchase are Holcim-owned Aggregates Industries and Breedon Aggregates, which is the UK’s biggest independent quarry firm.

Lafarge, Hanson owner Heidelberg, and Cemex control over 90 per cent of the market currently, along with 75 per cent of the aggregates sales ands 70 per cent of ready-mixed concrete in the UK.

Previous story - Tarmac and Lafarge tie up means large asset sell off.

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