Cement making giants
Swiss firm Holcim says that the two companies are seconding one senior manager each to a committee responsible for divesting assets that would look at options including setting up a new business as well as outright sales.
Analysts have mostly assumed until now that the two companies would sell the assets. However, Holcim says the firms do not have a preferred option at this stage.
The Lafarge-Holcim merger, unveiled in April 2014, would create the world's largest cement group with US$44 billion in yearly sales.
The firms are seeking buyers for Holcim's French activities, Lafarge's German ones and other operations in Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Britain, Canada, the Philippines, Mauritius and Brazil. That would affect some 10,000 workers and account for about €3.5 billion of sales. The merger is expected to close in the first half of 2015.
Holcim said the seconded managers were Alain Bourguignon, a member of Holcim's senior management and area manager for Canada, Britain, and the United States, and Marc Soule, senior vice president for performance management at Lafarge.
"In their new roles, they will conduct management presentations to potential buyers of the assets Holcim and Lafarge proposed for divestment," Holcim said in a statement.
"They will also prepare the option of divesting these assets, including the option of separating these out in a single package, either in Europe or worldwide."
In the event of a spin-off, Bourguignon and Soule would be the chief executive and chief financial officer respectively of any new business, Holcim said.
Irish cement maker
Holcim also said that Urs Bleisch had been nominated to join its executive committee.
