CRH receives regulatory approval for $3.5bn acquisition

Building materials giant CRH has received regulatory approval in the US for its $3.5 billion (€3.02 billion) acquisition of Ash Grove Cement.

In September 2017, CRH announced it had reached an agreement to acquire Ash Grove, the fifth largest US cement manufacturer.

The deal is the biggest for CRH – already the world's third largest building materials supplier – since it paid €6.5 billion for businesses sold off by rivals Holcim and Lafarge, following their 2015 merger.

The Irish construction company was troubled last October when Summit Materials entered the bidding process with a non-binding offer between $3.7 billion and $3.8 billion. However, a formal bid from Summit, founded by one of CRH’s former executives, failed to materialise before the deadline.

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On Friday, the company said the US Federal Trade Commission had issued its consent order for the transaction and no further regulatory approvals are outstanding.

In a notice to the stock market CRH said the transaction is expected to close in June 2018, “though there can be no assurance regarding the timing of the closure”.