Holcim Secures Lattimore Materials Stake

Holcim Participations (US) Inc., Waltham, Mass. was on track to purchase by late last month a significant minority stake in McKinney, Texas-based Lattimore

CP STAFF

Holcim Participations (US) Inc., Waltham, Mass. was on track to purchase by late last month a significant minority stake in McKinney, Texas-based Lattimore Materials Company, L.P., a top ready mixed and aggregate producer in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. Projected to close at month’s end, the transaction offers a position in a business downstream of the 2.3 million-tpy Holcim (Texas) L.P. cement mill in Midlothian, just outside the metroplex. On the concrete side, Holcim Participations enters a market nearly evenly divided among Redi-Mix/U.S. Concrete, Southern Star Concrete and Texas Industries.

One of the industry’s largest independent operators, Lattimore Materials employs approximately 1,150 people and spans 19 ready mixed and six aggregate plants, four rail terminals, and a mixer and dump fleet of 400-plus trucks. We believe this investment will strengthen both companies’ prospects for growth and allow them to add greater value and long term stability, says Vic Lattimore, who remains president and along with his management team will continue to oversee operations,

Lattimore Materials marks Holcim Participations’ third investment offering integration potential with Holcim (US) cement properties. In summer 2006, it acquired Meyer Material Co., a key ready mixed and aggregate supplier in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin-both markets strategic to Holcim (US) terminals. A year later, Holcim Participations added Hardaway Concrete, whose Columbia and Greenville, S.C., plants are well within the range of Holcim (US) cement production and distribution sites. Meyer and Hardaway operate under Holcim (US) sister entity, Aggregate Industries. Holcim Participations will oversee the Lattimore Materials interest.