Breedon hopes to buy Lafarge and Anglo American assets

894 Breedon Aggregates, the UK's largest independent cement quarrying business, is reported to be keen to buy any assets sold by 725 Lafarge and 722 Anglo American if they move to meet competition commission rules ahead of a potential €2.12billion tie-up of their UK cement companies.

Formed in 2010 through a reverse takeover, Breedon made its first acquisition last year buying C&G Concrete for €10.5million. It said at the time it was keen to develop its quarrying asphalt and concrete division through further purchases.

"We are on standby to do a bigger deal and our shareholders are supportive of that and we will watch with interest," Simon Vivian, Breedon's chief executive, said in an interview with The Financial Times.

The planned building materials joint venture between Anglo American, which trades in the UK under 868 Tarmac, and Lafarge was thrown into question last week when the Competition Commission said that the deal could increase the risk of prices being rigged.

The commission is assessing whether or not to block the deal or force significant asset sales - up to the size of either businesses' total operations in some products. A final report is due in May.

Lafarge and Tarmac's hopes have been further setback by an additional industry-wide investigation by competition authorities - taking in 1343 Hanson, now owned by Heidelberg, of Germany; 1707 Aggregate Industries, now owned by 680 Holcim, of Switzerland; and 643 Cemex, owner of what was RMC.

The commission's initial findings into the Lafarge-Tarmacdeal gave the strongest indication yet of authorities' fears over large groups squeezing out competitors, raising prices and acting anti-competitively, often in highly localised markets.

Lafarge, Heidelberg, Cemex and Anglo American account for more than 90 per cent of the cement market, 75 per cent of aggregates sales and 70 per cent of ready-mixed concrete production in the UK.