CRH completes sale of Ash Grove assets to GCC

Regulators approved sale on condition that some assets were sold to address competition concerns

Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

CRH has completed the sale of cement and ready-mix assets related to its Ash Grove acquisition to Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC).

The Irish company agreed to buy the US's fifth-largest cement company for $3.5 billion (€2.9 billion) in September last year. Regulators approved the sale earlier this month, but said CRH would have to sell some of the assets to address findings by the Federal Trade Commission that the deal would hurth competition in certain areas.

Among the assets up for sale were a cement plant, two sand-and-gravel plants, one sand-and-gravel pit, three limestone quarries, and two hot-mix asphalt plants.

GCC paid $107.5 million for the Trident cement plant in Three Forks, Montana, which has a capacity of 315,000 metric tons.

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CRH acquired most of the ready-mix plants and transportation assets belonging to GCC in Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas for $118.5 million.

After the deal, GCC will continue to own and operate four ready-mix plants in Arkansas and own an office building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which it will lease to CRH.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist