Lafont seeks candidate with industry experience for role as chief

Building materials group Lafarge's boss Bruno Lafont wants someone with experience of the cement industry to be chief executive in the French group's planned tie-up with Swiss peer Holcim, newspaper Le Monde said.

The choice of chief for what would be the world’s largest cement maker is still unresolved after revised merger terms last month gave Lafont the role of non-executive co-chairman instead of chief executive.

Lafont is due to propose a candidate within the next two weeks ahead of a special May 8th shareholder meeting to ratify the merger deal.

CRH is to buy a number of mostly European assets from Lafarge and Holcim for €6.5bn so the firms can get antitrust clearance for their plan to create the industry's biggest company.

“For me, there should be a leader able to drive and unify the teams, a cement expert who already has good knowledge of the industry and the company, and with a true culture of value creation for shareholders,” he said. – (Reuters)