Merger setback puts CRH buy-out of Lafarge into doubt

CRH's €7bn buy-out of the UK’s biggest cement maker has been thrown into doubt after a setback in the merger of Lafarge and Holcim.

CRH recently agreed to buy Lafarge Tarmac, which employs 6,600 staff at 330 sites and produces 45 million tonnes of aggregates and 7 million tonnes of asphalt a year, in a deal seen as key to smoothing the regulatory path for the €42bn merger of France’s Lafarge and Switzerland’s Holcim to create the world’s largest cement group.