European competition regulators have today cleared cement firm CRH's planned €6.5 billion purchase of a number of mostly European assets from rivals Lafarge and Holcim.
The European Commission said it had now approved the sale of those assets to CRH, finding that it posed no separate competition risk.
"CRH's activities overlap with the divested businesses in a number of areas, such as cement, aggregates, ready-mix concrete and asphalt," the Commission said in a statement.
However, it added that because these materials are sold close to where they are manufactured, in local markets, CRH would not gain an unfair advantage and would still face competition.
The Commission cleared the merger in December but required Lafarge to sell businesses in Germany, Romania and Britain, while Holcim had to do the same in France, Hungary, Slovakia, Spain and the Czech Republic.
Regulators in other countries such as the US and Brazil also demanded that the two companies sell assets to address their competition concerns.
CRH shares closed 2.8% higher in Dublin trade this evening.
The sale of the assets clears the way for the cement industry's largest company - set to be called and employing some 136,000 people with annual sales of €32bn and underlying profits of €6.5bn.
However, Zurich-based Holcim still needs to win the support of two-thirds of shareholders at a meeting on 8 May.
Analysts say they expect the deal to go through, but there has been considerable opposition to the terms which had to be renegotiated in March.
There were also sharp differences over who should lead the new company, with the two boards only agreeing earlier this month that Lafarge operations vice president Eric Olsen would be its chief executive officer.
The CEO role was a major sticking point when the tie-up between the French and Swiss companies came close to collapse in March.
The two groups eventually agreed new terms to satisfy discontented Holcim shareholders, but the top job remained a problem.
Since the deal was announced last April, Holcim investors had watched the companies' relative business performances diverge.
