In an announcement late last month carried by Bloomberg Media and directed to investors outside the U.S., Holcim Group cited plans for a tender offer covering the remaining shares of Montreal-based St. Lawrence Cement Co. its does not already hold. The $500 million-plus deal would afford Holcim 100 percent of St. Lawrence's voting class shares, up from a current 79 percent block. The proposed acquisition would allow Holcim “to further embed St. Lawrence commercially and financially into the Holcim Group,” the announcement noted. It would also follow the Swiss parent's previous North American portfolio consolidation — Holcim (US) Inc. (1994) and Holcim Apasco S.A. (2004) — plus the takeover of U.S. and U.K.-centered Aggregate Industries (2005).

Holcim has requested the St. Lawrence board establish a special committee of independent directors to evaluate the proposed offer. Although bound by Canadian versus U.S. securities laws, that committee review would mirror a similar process employed in the February-April 2006 takeover of Lafarge North America and Lafarge Canada subsidiary by Paris-based Lafarge Group. That transaction brought the buyer the remaining 46.8 percent stake in Lafarge North America it did not already hold.