Irish building materials giant CRH is not likely to increase its stake in Israeli cement producer Mashav, following a breakdown in talks between the two parties recently.
CRH already owns 25 per cent of Mashav and held an option to double, that expired at the end of last year. Yesterday it emerged that it had continued talking this year with Mashav's 75 per cent shareholder Clal Industries about the possibility of taking up a further 25 per cent interest.
"However, CRH and Clal Industries have been unable to agree a price for the additional 25 per cent and, as a result, negotiations have now ceased," the company said yesterday.
"CRH remains a 25 per cent shareholder in Mashav, which continues to perform satisfactorily against an uncertain economic backdrop," it added.
CRH bought its 25 per cent holding in the company three years ago this week. It did not reveal the purchase price, but reports at the time valued the deal at €225 million.
Mashav is the parent company of Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises, the only indigenous cement producer in the country.
The year before CRH bought into the group, 20 per cent of its sales came from the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas governed by the Palestinian Authority. However, the escalating violence between the Israelis and Palestinians subsequently hit this trade.
In its 2003 annual report, CRH said that the political situation there had damaged the Israeli economy and hit cement sales there. However, it added that performance in the West Bank and Gaza had improved.
Human rights group Amnesty International last year asked CRH if it was supplying materials for the wall that the Israeli government is building along the occupied West Bank. The Irish company has said several times that it was not and its chief executive, Mr Liam O'Mahoney, reiterated this when the firm published its full-year 2003 results last month.
CRH has sales of more than €10 billion and is the largest private sector firm in this country. It is the world's fourth largest supplier of building materials.
