The announcement of the birth of the giant aroused the enthusiasm of everyone, young and old. A fusion enthusiasm that could infect many, even in Italy. Holcim and Lafarge, the two leading cement producers in the world, have announced their willingness to join forces to better adapt to global competition. The resulting new behemoth will be "the most advanced group in the building materials industry," the two companies said in a joint statement.
The Swiss Holcim and the French Lafarge are the market leaders in cement and related products such as stone and sand. Last year, they had about $44 billion in revenue. Together, they employ 135 people.
The deal is subject to shareholder approval and, more importantly, the go-ahead from antitrust authorities in Europe and elsewhere. writes the New York Times. Among other things, Holcim is already grappling with a regulatory scrutiny in the European Union for the agreement with the Mexicans of Cemex.
Rolf Soiron, president of Holcim, said the companies would move soon to resolve the matter, raising possible problems in Canada, Brazil, India, China and, above all, Europe.
The companies expect the merger to close in the first half of 2015. The new group will be headquartered in Switzerland.
The agreement - writes BBC news – should help companies face together the problems that hit the sector with the financial crisis: that of the high price of energy and that of weaker demand.
Already on Friday the two groups had confirmed that they were in "advanced talks" for a merger. A piece of news that had pushed their respective stocks upwards, which closed the week with strong increases: +8,9% for Lafarge and +6,86% for Holcim, the best performance on the Zurich stock exchange. The enthusiasm extended to all of the sector's stocks in Europe, including the Italian companies Buzzi Unicem (+4,39%), Cementir (+2.97%) and Italcementi (+6,67%).
At around 17 pm today, the shares of the two companies continue to rise by about half a point. And in Italy the effect of the merger is still being felt, with Italcementi up by +2,19%. "The consolidation of the sector is clearly positive in terms of pricing conditions, the merger creates opportunities to buy assets because the new group must operate forced sales”, to comply with the requests of the Antitrust, explain Kepler's analysts to Milano Finanza. And, they add, “this courageous move could lead to further consolidation in the sector. The three Italian groups are all controlled by reference families”.
