Lafarge has agreed the sale of its cement and downstream operations in the Marmara and Black Sea regions of Turkey to Oyak, the armed forces pension fund, for €163m.  The deal, valued at 10 times last year’s EBITDA, will only make a slight reduction in the fragmentation of the Turkish cement market, that suffers from a considerable over-capacity.  Oyak is already the largest cement producer in Turkey and the deal will, subject to monopolies clearance in Turkey, will give Oyak a clinker capacity of 8.5m tonnes and a cement capacity of 15.7m tonnes.  Oyak is also the leading ready-mixed concrete producer in the country and the deal with Lafarge will add nine batching plants and three quarries in addition to one integrated cement works and one grinding centre with a combined annual cement capacity of 1.65m tonnes.

The Oyak deal will leave Lafarge with one 0.6m tonnes per annum integrated cement plant in eastern Turkey and a 23.2% stake in Batiçim Andalou, which has an annual cement capacity of 3Mt, the disposal of which is now likely to be just a matter of time.

The other main divestments by Lafarge are the sale of its asphalt operations in the maritime provinces of Eastern Canada and the aggregates and concrete businesses in the Zürich area of Switzerland, comprising of two quarries, two batching plants and a mortar plant.
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