Second Holcim backer shows Lafarge concerns

The Russian businessman Filaret Galchev, who owns a 10.8% stake in Swiss building materials group Holcim, via Eurocement Holding, has rejected the merger offer that France’s Lafarge has made for Holcim, a Swiss newspaper reported.

Galchev, Holcim’s second-largest shareholder, views the offer as “not satisfactory and half-baked”, reported the Sonntagszeitung yesterday, citing an unnamed source described as a Galchev confidant.

Galchev believes the exchange ratio offered by Lafarge, at 1:0.9 shares, still fails to compensate Holcim shareholders adequately, and that a decision needs to be made about who will lead any combined firm, the paper wrote.