PRODUCERS – MAY 2020

Dallas-based Eagle Materials Inc. has sold its Mathews Readymix and Western Aggregates operations in northern California to Sacramento producer and contractor Teichert Inc. The Mathews assets include three batch plant locations and 26 trucks; Western Aggregates’ vested-rights-to-mine cover 3,900 acres and span reserves of 900 million-plus tons. The $93.5 million deal anticipates Eagle Materials’ split into two public companies—a cement-centric namesake and wallboard-centered American Gypsum—originally scheduled for the second half of 2020, but subject to a revised timetable based on recent investor guidance.

“This transaction represents the sale of non-core assets on the heavy-side of our company [as] they do not provide essential support to our primary cement plant network,” says Eagle Materials CEO Michael Haack. “We are especially keen on having the most strategically coherent set of heavy-side assets established in advance of our previously announced spin-off. These divestitures, along with the integration of the Kosmos cement plant acquisition, create a focused heavy materials business with a broad capability to serve U.S. heartland cement markets.”

Separately, Eagle Materials has appointed Mary Ricciardello as director. She served in the same capacity for seven years with Texas peer U.S. Concrete Inc. and is currently on the boards of Devon Energy and Noble Corp., chairing their Audit Committees. Ricciardello is a veteran of Reliant Energy, where her management roles included a tenure as chief accounting officer.

LafargeHolcim Ltd. will seek shareholder approval during this month’s annual general meeting in Zurich for the appointment of two new directors. Dr. Philippe Block is professor of Architecture and Structure at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, director of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research for Digital Fabrication, and LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction Academic Committee member. Kim Fausing is chief executive office of the Danish Danfoss Group, which he joined in 2007 after nearly two decades with Hilti Group, responsible for operations in Denmark, Austria or Japan.