Holcim and Lafarge confident merger to occur this summer
Holcim and Lafarge are confident that their merger will happen this summer, says The New York Times.
According to The New York Times, the agreement to merge was faltering in recent weeks because Holcim shareholders thought they were getting shortchanged and because of leadership disagreement. Holcim announced that it no longer agreed to have Lafarge Chief Executive Bruno Lafont lead the company once it merged.
In order to fix these problems, the companies said they revised the merger terms to appease Holcim shareholders and agreed to have another Lafarge executive lead the group, reports The New York Times. Holcim shareholders will now put in nine shares for every 10 shares of Lafarge. In addition, they will get a post-closing dividend of one share in the new company for every 20 shares they own.
“With this amended agreement, the project to combine Lafarge and Holcim to become the most advanced company in its industry has taken another important step forward,” they said in a joint statement. “Both companies are continuing to work intensively on preparing the closing of the transaction and the successful integration post-merger.”
After solving the issues related to the merger, the companies moved forward with their plans, says The New York Times. Holcim reported it would put the merger before shareholders at a meeting in May, and Sabine Wacquez, a Lafarge spokeswoman, said the merger would go ahead if two-thirds of the shareholders exchanged their Lafarge shares for shares in the merged company.
In addition, Irish cement materials company CRH approved the acquisition of Lafarge-Holcim assets valued at about $7 billion, reports The New York Times.