Lafarge Tarmac has agreed a deal to acquire Tarmac Building Products (TBP) from Anglo American, and the terms of the transaction, which will now be subject to regulatory approvals, are confidential. Cyrille Ragoucy, CEO of Lafarge Tarmac said: “TBP offers a close fit with our existing business, which will add value for us and our customers, while also securing TBP’s long term future. The deal will also open up new opportunities for Lafarge Tarmac particularly in the house-building sector.” Lafarge Ta
Lafarge Tarmac has agreed a deal to acquire Tarmac Building Products (TBP) from Anglo American, and the terms of the transaction, which will now be subject to regulatory approvals, are confidential.
Cyrille Ragoucy, CEO of Lafarge Tarmac said: “TBP offers a close fit with our existing business, which will add value for us and our customers, while also securing TBP’s long term future. The deal will also open up new opportunities for Lafarge Tarmac particularly in the house-building sector.”
Lafarge Tarmac is the British building materials company formed from a 50:50 joint venture between Anglo American and Lafarge following the necessary approvals from the UK Competition Commission.
Lafarge Tarmac is already one of TBP’s largest suppliers, and the current process is now in the hands of the competition authorities. It is believed that Lafarge Tarmac will make a filing with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which will either approve the transaction or refer it to the Competition Commission (CC) for further consideration. If the OFT approves the transaction it is likely to be completed in early 2014, whereas the CC process would most likely take an additional six months.
It is understood that both TBP and Lafarge Tarmac operations will continue to operate independently until such approvals are obtained.
In February 2011 Anglo American and Lafarge announced their intention to merge their British construction materials businesses, excluding Lafarge’s UK gypsum activities, and in September 2011 the proposed transaction was referred to the Competition Commission by the Office of Fair Trading. The merger was completed in March 2013.
TBP is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of heavy building materials, and produces products such as blocks, mortar, bagged aggregates and bagged cement, and until 2010 it was part of the Tarmac Group. This heritage (brand, culture, locations and product range) complements Lafarge Tarmac’s existing business. Indeed, the company shares offices with Lafarge Tarmac at Ettingshall, West Midlands region, and Buxton, County Derbyshire.
The decision to sell TBP, which has been up for sale since 2007 and which has 800 employees across the UK, is in line with Anglo American’s strategy to focus on its core mining portfolio.
TBP is heavily exposed to growth sectors with approximately 80% of its revenues being derived from the housing and housing retail, maintenance and improvement sectors.
