Lafarge and Holcim are negotiating on merging into one company

Two biggest cement producers, Lafarge and Swiss Holcim, have stepped into serious negotiations on merging into one company whose value at the stock market would total more than USD 50 billion which would be the biggest merge of two companies in that field in the history.

Their negotiations, which will most likely attract huge attention of the European authorities for competition protection, "are based on the principles with are in line with the merge of equal”, the two companies announced, Reuters reports.

According to the announcement, the agreement has not been reached yet, nor there is a guarantee it wil be but there is “strong compliance” and “cultural similarity” between these groups.

The announced merging would help Lafarge and Holcim to reduce costs, decrease debts level and to deal as good as possible with weakened market demand which has been causing serious damage to that sector since the economic crisis start in2008.

However, the agreement will most likely attract the attention of the European regulatory institutions because the newly-formed entity, Lafarge-Holcim, would have a dominant position both in Europe and in USA.

The information that Lafarge and Holcim had already reached agreement on the merger and would announce that Monday emerged Sunday afternoon (6 April 2014). In Serbia, Lafarge owns Beocin-based cement plant, while Holcim is the owner of Popovac-based cement plant.