Binding bids for Holcim-Lafarge assets due next week

Reuters is reporting that private equity firm KKR has the financial backing to bid for the UK assets of Lafarge and Holcim, which announced their merger plans back in April 2014. Binding bids for the assets on sale worldwide are due next week. KKR has just over £1 billion of debt financing to make its bid.

Assets are being divested to appease competition regulators in Europe, Canada, the Philippines and Brazil, among others. India’s competition authority is looking into the impact of the merger there and has not yet made a decision on whether divestments will be necessary. It has been reported that cement manufacturers including Ireland’s CRH, Italy’s Italcementi, India’s Aditya Birla and Turkey’s Sabanci will make bids, together with investors from outside the cement industry such as Canadian pension fund CPP. The sale is expected to raise €6 billion.

Edited from various sources by Katherine Guenioui

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/09012015/binding-bids-for-holcim-lafarge-assets-due-next-week-116/