10th May 2018 12:09
LONDON (Alliance News) - The UK Competition & Markets Authority on Thursday said remedies offered by Tarmac Trading Ltd as part of its asset swap with Breedon Group PLC could be acceptable.
In December, Breedon said it had agreed to buy four quarries and an asphalt plant from Tarmac in exchange for 27 ready-mixed concrete plants and GBP4.9 million in cash.
Tarmac is a subsidiary of FTSE 100-listed building materials firm CRH PLC.
In late April the CMA raised concerns the deal could affect competition, specifically regarding the transfer of the 27 concrete plants in the Cardiff, Bridgend, and Carnforth areas in Wales, where the companies are competitors.
Breedon's plans to acquire the four quarries and the asphalt plant were cleared.
The CMA said at the time: "The lack of other strong suppliers of RMX in these areas could mean that customers would face increased prices or a worse quality of service as a result of the proposed merger."
The regulator said Thursday that Tarmac had offered not to acquire the concrete plants, and thus it said there are "reasonable grounds" it might accept the undertaking. It has, it added, until July 9 to either accept the offer from Tarmac though this may be pushed back to early September.
Separately, the CMA also said it inviting comments over whether there are any competition concerns in CRH's takeover of Alun Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd through Tarmac.
Breedon shares were up 0.8% on Thursday at 83.67 pence each while CRH was down 0.8% at 2,689.00p.
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