Lafarge SA and Holcim Ltd. officials see financial benefits and integration possibilities in their proposed “merger of equals,” netting LafargeHolcim—present in 90 countries with $44 billion in sales; 470 million and 384 million tons of cement and aggregate shipments, respectively; plus, 90 million yd. of ready mixed production. The strategy they outlined in Zurich and Paris last month leads to a mid-2015 1:1 share exchange, the merged business operating under executives and directors drawn equally from both companies.
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