The merger was completed on Friday and the global launch of the new company will be celebrated on Tuesday 15 July.
All conditions for the completion of the merger have now been fulfilled following the completion of the public exchange offer and the issuance of new Holcim shares to Lafarge shareholders. A new board of directors and new executive committee are in place, with Eric Olsen as CEO.
Wolfgang Reitzle, co-chairman of the new board said: “Today’s closing is a historic event – not only for our two founding companies but also for the industry as a whole. LafargeHolcim has a unique business portfolio, is the industry benchmark in R&D and offers its customers the widest range of innovative and value-adding products, services and solutions – from smallholders to large enterprises and most complex projects.”
Fellow co-chairman Bruno Lafont added: “This new company is built on the rich history and culture of Lafarge and Holcim and its teams. The merger has not only resulted in a larger and more global company but brings about a unique set of complementary capabilities to capitalize on. Under the leadership of Eric Olsen, the new Group will foster a new operating model and create more value for all our stakeholders.”
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The new LafargeHolcim shares will be traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange as well as the Euronext in Paris as of July 14.
LafargeHolcim will re-open the public exchange offer to give the remaining Lafarge shareholders the opportunity to also tender their shares. The new offer period will start on July 15, 2015 for a duration of ten trading days until July 28th.
In April 2014 the two companies had announced their intention to merge. The Group received all relevant anti-trust approvals within the expected timeframe. In this context, operations in Europe, the US, Canada, Brazil, India, the Philippines, and Mauritius are being divested. Completion of these transactions is expected within the coming months.
The combined group has a presence in 90 countries and a focus on cement, aggregates and concrete. It has 115,000 employees around the world and combined net sales of CHF33bn (£22.6bn) in 2014.
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