US/UK: Commission approves Hanson Building purchase by Lone Star

HeidelbergCement is to sell its brick and roof-tile business to private equity firm Lone Star Funds for €1.17 billion (US$1.4 billion), as it looks to cut debt and return its focus to products such as cement and aggregates.

The sale of Hanson Building Products includes North American assets outside of western Canada as well as operations in the UK, the Heidelberg, Germany-based cement maker said in a statement. The price includes a payment of as much as €84 million ($100 million) from Lone Star that’s de

Blackstone, Cinven and a Canadian pension fund are said by the UK’s Financial Times (FT) newspaper to be exploring a joint bid for €5 billion worth of assets earmarked for sale by cement makers Lafarge and Holcim.

The move by the two private equity groups and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said by the FT to have been disclosed by two people familiar with the talks, is the latest claimed interest from buyout groups in the facilities to be sold by the world’s two largest cement groups to help wi

Co-ordination between Lafarge Tarmac, CEMEX and Hanson, the UK’s three major cement producers, in the cement market is likely to be resulting in higher prices for cement users, according to the provisional findings of the Competition Commission’s (CC) investigation into the supply of aggregates, cement and ready-mixed concrete in Great Britain. The CC’s findings do not relate to explicit collusion between the three heavyweight cement producers. But, as the cement market is highly concentrated with only four

Hanson UK’s specialist asphalt Tufflex HD is being used to resurface the B4587 Akers Way in Swindon, South West England. The flexible and durable material has been specified by Swindon Borough Council for the three-kilometre project to cover the existing concrete surface. Deliveries are being made by non-tipping ‘moving floor’ vehicles, which can carry 40% more than conventional tipper trucks, to minimise road movements.