LafargeHolcim shareholder bets on recovery

Bloomberg are reporting that Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, the third-biggest shareholder of LafargeHolcim Ltd., purchased more than US$10.3 million in stock, in the hope that shares in the world’s biggest cement maker will recover.

Sawiris purchased the shares on 18 and 21 March.

LafargeHolcim has lost 39% of its value since trading began in July, faring far worse than HeidelbergCement AG. Shares closed 2.2% higher in Zurich on 23 March, giving the cement maker a market capitalisation of 27 billion swiss francs.

Since Lafarge and Holcim combined, CEO Eric Olsen has had to cope with a slowdown in China and Brazil, management departures and delays in the sale of some assets that have weighed on the share price.

Sawiris also runs Dutch fertilizer producer OCI NV, which last year agreed to sell its European and North American nitrogen-fertiliser assets to CF Industries Holdings Inc. in a transaction valued at about US$8 billion.

Edited from source by Joseph Green. Source: Bloomberg

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