HeidelbergCement completes sale of North American and UK building products business

HeidelbergCement on Friday completed the sale of its North American (excluding Western Canada) and United Kingdom building products business (collectively “Hanson Building Products”) to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds.

“I am very glad to be able to hand over Hanson Building Products to a buyer which as an experienced financial investor will support the sustainable development of the business going forward,” said Dr Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement.

“This transaction marks the completion of HeidelbergCement’s repositioning over the last years towards its core products of cement and aggregates and downstream activities of ready-mixed concrete and asphalt. At the same time, the proceeds of the transaction allow us to significantly accelerate our debt pay down. Considering this cash inflow, our net debt at the end of 2014 declines to well below €6bn, clearly exceeding the target we committed towards the capital market. This is an important step towards improving our credit-worthiness. We will do our utmost to continue to create value for our shareholders in 2015,” he added.

HeidelbergCement and Lone Star announced the sale on December 24, 2014. With the completion of the deal, HeidelbergCement receives cash proceeds of more than €1.2bn. On top of this, depending on the performance of the business in 2015, up to US$100m will be payable in 2016.