HeidelbergCement AG has completed the acquisition of a 45 per cent shareholding in Italcementi SpA from Italmobiliare SpA. All conditions for the closing of the transaction have been fulfilled following the approval by the relevant competition authorities.

"Today’s closing is an important milestone in the history of HeidelbergCement," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the Management Board, on Friday, 1 July. "By adding Italcementi to our Group, we are considerably strengthening our global footprint and innovation capabilities. We see significant potential for value creation with the realisation of synergies and by learning from each other’s best practices. From now on, we will focus all our efforts on the integration of Italcementi into our Group."

With this closing of the transaction, HeidelbergCement acquired 157.17m ordinary shares, representing 45 per cent of the share capital of Italcementi for a total consideration of EUR1.67bn based on a price of EUR10.60 per Italcementi share. Thereof 82.82m ordinary shares were acquired against cash. The remaining 74.35m ordinary shares were acquired against the assignment of 10.5m newly-issued shares of HeidelbergCement. Italmobiliare becomes the second largest industrial shareholder of HeidelbergCement with a stake of 5.3 per cent.