Heidelberg Materials buys US firm Giant Cement for $600 million

BERLIN (Reuters) -Heidelberg Materials has struck a deal to buy U.S. company Giant Cement Holding and its subsidiaries for $600 million, it said on Thursday, the latest acquisition by the German company to expand its foothold in the United States.

The transaction, to be completed in the first quarter of 2025, is expected to contribute around $60 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the first year of operation, “before significant additional synergies”, Heidelberg said in a statement.

“The acquisition … will further strengthen our cement footprint in the growing Southeastern U.S. and New England markets,” said Chris Ward, CEO of Heidelberg Materials North America.

Giant Cement Holding was owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim’s Spanish cement and real estate unit Inmocemento which will book a capital gain of $145 million on the asset sale, the Spanish company said in a separate filing to the Spanish stock market regulator.

Inmocemento was spun off from Slim’s Spanish conglomerate FCC earlier this month.

(Reporting by Rachel More and Javi West Larrañaga, editing by Thomas Seythal and Inti Landauro)