Swiss cement giant
The planned merger with Lafarge will create the world's largest cement group with over $40 billion in annual sales. The deal is to be accompanied by the sale of assets representing around 12% of combined revenues.
"We expect the final bids somewhere in January 2015," Holcim Chief Executive Bernard Fontana said in a presentation for investors on Tuesday, adding that Holcim also hoped to select buyers for the assets the same month.
"All this is consistent with an overall transaction expected within the first half of 2015," he said.
Holcim's Chief Financial Officer Thomas Aebischer said earlier this month that the company had received more than 60 bids by an October 20 deadline for non-binding offers.
Fontana said that Holcim had received competition clearance for the planned merger from seven jurisdictions, and that other clearances were expected between late November and the end of February. It is waiting on approval from 13 other jurisdictions, including the
Fontana said the EU's competition watchdog did not want Holcim's assets not to be broken up into small entities.
"I think they want a strong, reliable player," Fontana said. "My read is that if there's one bid, it's welcome. If it's two it's okay but they would not like us to fragment into very small pieces."
Holcim said it expected 2015 to be "a solid year" with operations in India, Indonesia, the U.S. and Britain helping achieve operating profit, excluding costs related to the merger, of between 2.7 billion and 2.9 billion Swiss francs ($2.8 billion-$3 billion).
