Lafarge Surma Cement acquires Holcim Bangladesh

The Board of Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd has approved the acquisition of 100 per cent shares of Holcim Bangladesh from LafargeHolcim Group. The transaction is subject to approval by the shareholders of Lafarge Surma as well as other regulatory and customary approvals in Bangladesh, according to a company statement.

Following the completion of the transaction, the company will own the only clinker production facility in Bangladesh and four grinding plants across the country. "This synergy will enable the company to optimise its network of production facility and create more cost-effective routes to the market," according to a company statement.

Lafarge Surma is a joint venture of LafargeHolcim and Cementos Molins of Spain. On 2 November, the Board of Lafarge Surma announced that it was exploring the opportunity of combining the businesses of Holcim Bangladesh and Lafarge Surma.

"The agreement is based on principles consistent with a plan to build on the strengths and identities of the two companies," said the company.

The acquisition comes more than a year after France's Lafarge and Switzerland's Holcim merged to form LafargeHolcim, which owns the majority stake in Holcim Bangladesh.

Before the acquisition, Lafarge Surma had the capacity of producing 1.5Mta of cement and 1.2Mta of clinker. Now the company will become a major player with a production capacity of 4.2Mta.