Cement maker Holcim completes $30 billion North American spin-off

By John Revill

ZURICH (Reuters) -Holcim has completed the spin-off of its North American business Amrize, which achieved a $30 billion valuation for the building materials supplier in early trading on Monday.

Shareholders were given one Amrize share for every share in Holcim in the 100% spin-off of the business, which the Swiss-listed company said aimed to sharpen its focus on the different market dynamics in North America compared with the rest of the world.

Amrize shares opened at 46 Swiss francs on the Six Swiss Exchange, giving it a market capitalisation of 24.7 billion Swiss francs ($30.24 billion), in line with the company's expectations for a roughly $30 billion valuation.

Its shares later lost 8.8% as Holcim investors sold some of their stock.

Holcim shares fell 33% from Friday's close to reflect the separation of the North American business, although they were 10.5% above the reference price estimated by brokers for the new stand-alone business.

"Some of the Holcim investors will have sold their Amrize shares straightaway and a lot of Swiss investors are more interested in the decarbonisation story at Holcim," said Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Martin Huesler.

Holcim has positioned itself as a lower carbon building materials supplier by producing reduced CO2 cement and re-using waste.

"Overall, the main thing is the stock price of both Amrize and Holcim combined is now more than the 93.68 closing price on Friday, which bodes well for the spin-off," Huesler added.

The spin-off decision was announced in January 2024, and is not linked to rise in U.S. tariffs.

In March, when it outlined its strategy following the separation, Holcim said it would target average annual growth in earnings before interest and taxes of 6% to 10% by 2030, driven in part by mergers and acquisitions.

Amrize, which had sales of $11.7 billion in 2024, aims to grow sales by 5-8% annually. It also wants to increase its core operating profit by 8-11% between 2025 and 2028 from $3.2 billion last year.

($1 = 0.8168 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Revill and Oliver Hirt, Editing by Miranda Murray and Barbara Lewis)