Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Heidelberg Cement has put its UK division Hanson back on the market with a reported price-tag of £1bn.
According to the Daily Mail Heidelberg-Cement started sounding out potential bidders at the start of the month and has appointed Frankfurt-based Commerzbank to handle the sale.
Heidelberg bought the global Hanson business for £7.8 bn in 2007. The firm employs 6,500 people in the UK.
Heidelberg is owned by the family of Adolf Merckle, the German billionaire who committed suicide in January.
Earlier this month, the company announced that the Thermalite aircrete block business was for sale and the company has been closing and mothballing plants since the downturn took hold.
Hanson UK is likely to be broken up with the four divisions – aggregates and asphalt, concrete, building products and cement sold off separately.
Likely suitors for some of the businesses could be Irish building materials conglomerate CRH, Holcim, Lafarge or Cemex.
