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Tue March 19 2024

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Lafarge Tarmac's CAT challenge postponed

12 Sep 14 A hearing into whether Lafarge Tarmac must sell a plant to open up the cement market to a new supplier has been postponed.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal decided there was no point proceeding until the proposed merger of Lafarge and Holcim had completed since its outcome would impact on market competition.

In January 2014 the Competition Commission set out plans to restructure the cement market in Great Britain, as it was concerned about the lack of competition. Among the measures was a direction to Lafarge Tarmac to sell a cement plant. (See previous report here.)

Lafarge Tarmac appealed against this ruling to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) and a hearing had been scheduled for 29th September 2014.

The CAT has now stayed the appeal until April 2015 to see what transpires from the Lafarge/Holcim merger first.

Lafarge Tarmac is a UK joint venture of Lafarge and Tarmac parent company Anglo-American. It was recently agreed that Lafarge will take full ownership of Lafarge Tarmac, buying out Anglo-American, paving the way for a sale of the whoile business. This move was part of business restructuring plan designed to satisfy European competition authorities that the merger with Holcim could go ahead. (See our previous report on that here.)

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