LKAB Minerals of Sweden is working on a deal to complete the acquisition of Francis Flower by 3 December 2018. The Austrian Competition Authority gave clearance for the acquisition on 10 October.

Francis Flower operates a 0.55Mta grinding unit for ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS) cement in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, UK. The company also has five main storage locations and a network of remote storage silos, which provides an additional 15,000t of cement storage.

Adrian Willmott, chairman and CEO of Francis Flower, said, "LKAB Minerals are in a unique position to further develop Francis Flower across all its product lines. I have the utmost confidence that they will do so using the same core values we have adopted with our customers, suppliers and employees throughout our history. There is no doubt that LKAB Minerals links to its parent's iron ore business will present much opportunity to Francis Flower in its next chapter, combine this with the ambitions of Darren Wilson and Leif Boström, and Francis Flower is going to continue to be an exciting place to be."

Darren Wilson, CEO Europe for LKAB Minerals, comments, "This is a positive and exciting step towards strengthening the two companies. We are looking forward to welcoming Francis Flower into LKAB in the coming weeks."