Lafarge withdraws from Italy

Lafarge withdraws from Italy
04 November 2008


Reducing its debt levels, Lafarge is selling its cement, aggregates and ready-mixed concrete activities in Italy to SACCI, a cement producer in which the Paris-based group at one stage used to hold a 20% interest. 

Lafarge Adriasebina, the Italian subsidiary of Lafarge operates two integrated cement works with a combined capacity of 1.2Mt one in Lombardy in the north and the other further south, in the Abruzzo region on the Adriatic coast. 

The downstream operations consist of 13 batching plants and three quarries, with the quarries all being in the Abruzzo region.  Lafarge originally set up the Italian business twelve years ago and the enterprise value of the business being sold is EUR290m. 

The move by SACCI involves an element of concentration in the highly fragmented Italian cement market, where SACCI also holds a 35% stake in Cementerie Aldo Barbetti, another central Italian cement producer, and a 40% interest in Cementaria di Constantopoli.   Prior to the deal with Lafarge SACCI had three integrated works in central Italy and a grinding centre in the port of Leghorn in Tuscany.
Published under Cement News