At the beginning of January, Buzzi Unicem paid €2.6m for a 0.5% interest in the Dyckerhoff ordinary share capital, taking its stake to 50.07% and thus a majority. Assuming the exercise of the existing options, the Italian cement group should have 91.20% of the Dyckerhoff voting capital by January 2005. In addition, Buzzi Unicem owns 62.2% of the non-voting Dyckerhoff preference capital. As from this year, Dyckerhoff will be fully consolidated into the Buzzi Unicem accounts.
With the beginning of January, RC Lonestar, Inc., the new US operating arm formed through Buzzi Unicem’s RC Cement and Dyckerhoff’s North American businesses, started operations. Following valuations of the businesses involved, ownership of RC Lonestar has been determined at 51.5% for Buzzi Unicem and 48.5% for Dyckerhoff. In addition, Buzzi Unicem owns the Texas cement producer Alamo Cement outright, making the group the fourth largest cement producer in the United States, with a market share approaching 10% nationally and more like 20% in the areas where it is active and a cement capacity in excess of 9.5m tonnes across twelve cement plants. Of these ten are integrated works and two are grinding stations.
