French company "Lafarge" SA, the world"s largest cement maker, and Austrian construction company "Strabag" will merge their Central European operations in one company. "By merging their operations in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary, the two companies expect significant synergies in terms of investment and cost.
Lafarge will bring its cement plants at Mannersdorf and Retznei in Austria, Cí¾kovice in Czech Republic and Trbovlje in Slovenia into the holding, while Strabag will contribute the plant it is currently building in Pécs in Hungary, the French group announced. The deal still needs regulator approval.
The newly created holding will be named "Lafarge Cement CE Holding", and will be headquartered in Austria. Lafarge then will hold a 70% interest in the new company, while STRABAG will hold 30%. The new group will become operational on January 2011 and will have an annual output of 4.8 million tons of cement. Its products will be sold under the Lafarge brand.
As a result of this transaction, Lafarge debt will be reduced by 77.5 million euros. Lafarge has a total debt of 14.6 billion Euros.