Finnish business for CRH?

Given that Heidelberger has paid top dollar (or top mark to be more precise), it is no great surprise that CRH - which had expressed initial interest - was never in the final shake-up for the Scandinavian cement group, Scancem. Only RMC was also in the frame in a deal which went for a staggering 4.5 billion deutschmarks - that is €2.3 billion, or £1.81 billion.

The problem for CRH and other producers interested in the various Scancem assets was that it was not individual assets that were for sale but Scancem, a public company in which Skanska of Sweden and Aker of Norway are controlling shareholders.

CRH, despite its immense financial strength, was not in a position to become embroiled in an auction of this scale and rightly resisted the temptation to become part of a three-way auction for Scancem.

Now, the main interest will be in what, if any, of the Scancem assets Heidelberger might sell off. One bit of the Scancem business that CRH had expressed interest in, Castle Cement in Britain, is certain to be retained by the new German owners.

But the Finnish business, Finncementi, is another matter and has to be sold separately by Scancem. Finland might be a bit removed geographically from the rest of CRH's business, but Finncementi by all accounts is a solid business and would provide an expansionary group like CRH with a firm foothold in the Scandinavian market.