Anglo American Sells Tarmac's Belgian, French Materials Arm

Global diversified miner Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) Tuesday said it has sold Tarmac's French and Belgian building materials business to Paris-based investment fund Fondations Capital in a deal that values the unit at EUR67 million.

The business, called Tarmac Materiaux de Construction, is one of the leading independent producers of concrete blocks in the French and Belgian markets, producing prefabricated concrete blocks, such as street curbs and paving stones.

The deal is in line with Anglo American's strategy to divest non-core assets, including Tarmac, and focus on seven core commodities: copper, diamonds, iron ore, metallurgical coal, nickel, platinum and thermal coal.

The miner has already disposed of some Tarmac assets piecemeal.

In 2008 Anglo spun-off Tarmac Iberia for EUR148 million and in February this year, the miner sold a large chunk of Tarmac's European businesses for proceeds of about $400 million. UK-headquartered Tarmac now owns businesses in the U.K., Romania, Turkey and the Middle East. It also owns a quarry in China.

Investment vehicle Marwyn Materials Ltd (MMAT.LN) was last month reported to have approached Anglo American to express interest in buying a majority stake in Tarmac. The company declined to comment about the offer but said it was open to evaluating attractively priced offers. Credit Suisse valued the remaining Tarmac business at the time between $2.5 billion and $3 billion.

 
  Company Website: http://www.angloamerican.co.uk 
 

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9328; [e-mail]