28th July, 2015
Daniels Ekugo
Cement makers Holcim Ltd and Lafarge officially unveiled their new combined building materials and construction company and said they remained committed to delivering reliable construction professionals in home builders by delivering cement, concrete, aggregates and other building solutions.
LafargeHolcim Ltd was launched after making its debut on the Swiss and Paris stock exchanges recently, and has a market capitalization of about 41 billion Swiss francs.
The company has been established to pivot the two companies away from developed markets towards faster growing economies in Africa and Asia where demand for cement is growing faster.
The deal, one of the largest in recent years, could also reduce costs because the combined company will be a big purchaser of raw materials.
The merger will create a company with combined sales of 33 billion francs and operations in 90 countries including 73 emerging markets spread across all the five continents.
According to a statement by Abimbola Agboluaje of WNT Capitas, “The business will continue to be known as Lafarge Africa Plc in Nigeria. The vision of Lafarge Africa Plc is to be the most trusted and preferred partner of construction professionals and home builders by delivering cement, concrete and other building solutions that are best in quality, environmentally sustainable and available nationwide.”
Agboluage further stated that “the company has over 2,500 operations and 115,000 employees including 1,000 Research and Development experts, and it is now expected to transform the global construction industry.”