Irish construction group CRH’s shares drop on Holcim/ Lafarge snag

The deal announced in April 2014 was supposed to combine the firms on an equal basis. However, diverging results, share prices and a Swiss franc surge against the euro have improved Holcim’s position and led its largest shareholder to press publicly for a revision of the agreement.
“The Holcim board of directors has concluded that the combination agreement can no longer be pursued in its present form”, Holcim said in a statement, saying it was ready to talk about both the share exchange ratio and “governance issues”.