Heidelberg Materials bets on US market under Trump

By Christoph Steitz and Ilona Wissenbach

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Heidelberg Materials, the world's second-largest cement maker, wants to do more deals in the U.S. in 2025 and is confident the policies of President Donald Trump will boost its business.

In his first comments since Trump took office last week, the CEO of German-listed Heidelberg Materials said the new administration had a clear growth agenda.

"It wants to create industrial jobs and significantly improve the infrastructure. These are all measures that tend to support our business and to which we can make a major contribution," said Dominik von Achten, who led the Heidelberg Materials' U.S. business for nearly eight years.

Heidelberg Materials, which competes with Holcim, makes around a quarter of its sales in the North American region, where it employs around 9,000, or around 18% of its total staff.

"The USA is a key region for our growth," von Achten said.

Companies around the globe are positioning as they anticipate tougher U.S. trade policy, dominated by tariffs and pressure on foreign companies to expand their U.S. presence.

"We produce locally in North America, we sell locally there, we have local employees. These are all things that I believe the new U.S. president considers important," von Achten said.

The group spent around 500 million euros ($520 million), or half of its M&A budget, on deals in the U.S. last year, something von Achten said could be repeated in 2025 with further "interesting deals".

The group felt most comfortable with transactions of up to 1 billion euros, he added.

The company wants to expand its market position in the southeastern part of the United States, where it last year agreed to buy Giant Cement Holding, he said.

Heidelberg Materials, like some rivals, has considered listing in the United States, where construction materials assets can command higher valuations.

Larger rival Holcim said last year it would spin off its North American business into a separate U.S.-listed entity, while Belgium's Titan Cement International has similar plans for its U.S. division.

Von Achten, under whose tenure shares more than doubled, was sceptical about following suit, saying there had been no change in valuations as a result of the announced strategies by rivals.

($1 = 0.9609 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Ilona Wissenbach; editing by Matthias Williams and Barbara Lewis)