Heidelberg Materials AG is the mystery bidder for Summit Materials Inc. that could potentially upend the US cement maker’s deal for the North American arm of Cementos Argos, people with knowledge of the matter said.
(Bloomberg) — Heidelberg Materials AG is the mystery bidder for Summit Materials Inc. that could potentially upend the US cement maker’s deal for the North American arm of Cementos Argos, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The German company has been working with advisers on its pursuit of Denver-based Summit and made approaches in recent weeks, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Heidelberg fell as much as 7.9% on Friday. The stock closed down 6.8% in Frankfurt, giving the company a market value of €12.3 billion ($13 billion).
Summit jumped on Thursday after the company revealed in a proxy statement that it had rejected two takeover proposals from an unnamed suitor. The latest of these offers was for $38 per share and was made on Oct. 18, Summit said in the filing.
It said in a subsequent filing on Friday that it received a letter from a representative of what it described as “Company A” withdrawing its proposal.
Summit’s shares rose 3.3% to $34.93 in New York trading on Friday, giving it a market value of about $4.2 billion.
Last month, Summit agreed to a $3.2 billion deal to buy the US operations of Colombian concrete maker Cementos Argos. Summit said in Thursday’s proxy filing that it rejected the takeover offers from the unnamed suitor as it couldn’t determine that they would likely lead to a proposal superior to its Cementos Argos deal.
Heidelberg’s intentions after the latest rejection aren’t clear, and it couldn’t immediately be learned whether it would continue its pursuit of Summit. Representatives for Heidelberg and Summit declined to comment.
Heidelberg’s bids for Summit come little more than two years after the company chose to sell assets in the western US under Chief Executive Officer Dominik von Achten’s plan to shed peripheral businesses.
Any deal would add to a flurry of activity in the building materials sector, which has helped keep bankers busy in an otherwise subdued period for mergers and acquisitions. Since the summer, Ireland’s Kingspan Group Plc has agreed to buy a majority stake in German building materials maker Steico SE and also approached US-based Carlisle Cos. about a deal to create an industry giant.
–With assistance from Yiqin Shen.
(Updates with company filing in fifth paragraph.)
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