The FINANCIAL — On Friday, 17 June, HeidelbergCement AG and Italcementi S.p.A. reached an agreement with the United States Federal Trade Commission to allow the companys’ merger to proceed on schedule.
The proposed divestment of operations in the US, primarily consisting of Italcementi’s Martinsburg, West Virginia cement plant and up to eleven terminals, was accepted by the Federal Trade Commission. All competition approvals necessary for closing the Italcementi acquisition have now been obtained, according to HeidelbergCement.
“We are very pleased with the positive decision of the Federal Trade Commission”, says Dr. Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement. “We are now on track to close the acquisition of the 45% stake in Italcementi which we are planning together with Italmobiliare for the beginning of July.”
The divestment process for the assets in US has already started and significant interest has already been recorded. Citi is mandated as sell side advisor for the disposal.
The planned full acquisition of Italcementi takes place in two steps. With the approvals of the competition authorities now in place, HeidelbergCement will initially acquire a controlling stake of 45% from Italmobiliare S.p.A. HeidelbergCement will then propose a public mandatory offer to the remaining shareholders for the acquisition of their shares in return for a cash payment. The exact timing of the mandatory offer will be communicated at a later time. HeidelbergCement expects the entire transaction to be completed in the second half of 2016.
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