£336 million takeover sees Shropshire concrete production sites change hands
Concrete production sites across Shropshire have changed hands after the £336 million takeover of a construction materials giant was completed.
Breedon Aggregates yesterday sealed the acquisition of Hope Construction Materials, which was created in January 2013 out of the merger of Tarmac and Lafarge.
The deal saw Breedon take control of just under 150 sites across the UK, after overcoming competition concerns by agreeing to sell 11 sites to Tarmac – including three in Shropshire – last week.
It means that of the Shropshire and Mid Wales sites, those at Llynclys near Oswestry, Wooferton near Ludlow, and Presteigne are now part of Breedon.
Others at Halesfield and Trench Lock in Telford, and Bayston Hill in Shrewsbury have been snapped up by Tarmac as part of the deal which convinced the Competition and Markets Authority to give the deal the green light.
Tarmac said a number of the businesses were previously under the company's control, and are based in its quarries.
Mark Joel, Tarmac's managing director for readymix concrete and building products, said: "The acquisition of these sites broadens our nationwide customer offer ensuring that we have ability to serve all major urban conurbations, as well as supplying bespoke projects from a fleet of mobile units.
"Importantly, we have the flexibility and capacity to meet the supply requirements of any type or size of project – from small schemes through to major housing, commercial, or infrastructure projects.
"Our plant network will continue to be underpinned by commercial, distribution and technical experts so that we offer high-quality customer support from 16 local service centres."
The deal, creating a £600 million-turnover business, was agreed in November last year, and will see Breedon pay £202 million to Cortolina Investments, which is a vehicle of the Mittal family which has steel-focused sites across the West Midlands. Another £134 million in shares has gone to Abicad Holding.
The Hope could remain in place as a brand for Breedon's readymix concrete division, following a large investment in the brand under the Mittal family's control.
Breedon has changed its own name, from Breedon Aggregates Ltd to Breedon Group plc.
Hope's chairman – Lakshmi Mittal's son-in-law Amit Bhatia – has been retained as a non-executive director of Breedon.
