HeidelbergCement reported to be selling building products business this year

674 HeidelbergCement aims to offload its US and British building products business this year to have the best chance of buying cement assets that 725 Lafarge and 680 Holcim must sell to complete a near €30 billion merger, a source with knowledge of the company's plan has told the 6393 Reuters news agency.

Lafarge and Holcim have committed to shed around €5 billion of assets to secure approval from competition authorities for their tie-up. HeidelbergCement's stated priority is debt reduction but the German firm may seize opportunities to snap up assets.

"The Lafarge-Holcim merger could speed up Heidelberg's asset disposal plans because Heidelberg would then be able to use its proceeds to buy some of the stuff that Lafarge-Holcim will divest," the Reuters source said.

HeidelbergCement is likely to sell the building materials business by the end of the year, the Reuters source claimed.

Reuters said a spokesman for HeidelbergCement declined to comment when asked about its claimed US and British building products business sell off.

HeidelbergCement’s building products ARM was acquired from 1343 Hanson in 2007. The German company held onto the assets until the US and UK housing markets recovered.

Last month, HeidelbergCement started its Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) in order to continuously optimise its cement production working processes. The new program, which will be introduced at 65 cement plants worldwide, takes a systematic approach in order to generate ideas among the employees, prioritise, and implement them. The company claims the process enhancements shall lead to sustainable result improvements of at least €120 million by the end of 2017.