Madrid-listed FCC has bought a 51 per cent of Uniland, the Catalan cement firm which CRH holds a contested 26.3 per cent stake in, writes Barry O'Halloran

FCC paid €1.09 billion, and has an option to buy a further 22.5 per cent at the same price. The deal values CRH's holding at €560 million. It bought that stake last December for €300 million, but the other shareholders in the privately owned Uniland challenged the legitimacy of the deal.

They subsequently put the company up for sale, but CRH was excluded from the bidding as it would not reverse the purchase of its 26.3 per cent.

CRH may attempt to block the sale of the majority stake to FCC and has started legal action to prevent the sale of the company.

CRH acquired its stake through the purchase of three companies, Sagarra Inversiones SL, Freixa Inversiones SL and Wimec AG Zug, which held the Uniland shares as their sole asset.

However, the other Uniland shareholders claim they should have been offered the shares ahead of CRH under the terms of the company's articles of association. They have begun an action in the Spanish commercial court to have the sale unwound on the basis that it was "fraudulent".

CRH says that it acquired its interest in Uniland legitimately.

The Irish group believes that Sagarra, Freixa and Wimec had the right to sell themselves, even thought they did not have the right to separately sell their Uniland shares without first offering them to other shareholders.

CRH began its own court action last week to prevent the sale of the 73.7 per cent of Uniland that it does not own being offered to other potential purchasers before it gets first refusal.

Neither court case is due to be heard for several months. If CRH succeeds in its action, then it could block the sale of the majority Uniland stake to FCC.

The group has not decided how it is going to respond to the deal struck with FCC. A spokesman said yesterday that it was still considering its options.

Uniland is based in Barcelona. It was formed over 30 years ago from the merger of two family-owned companies, and had an estimated 80 shareholders before CRH bought into it in December.

Uniland is one of the biggest players in its sector in Spain, and has interests in Argentina and Tunisia. In 2004 it had sales of €423 million and profits of €111 million.

FCC is also based in Barcelona. It is Spain's third biggest building company. It plans to double sales over three years and has a €3 billion war chest to fund its expansion through acquisitions. It is valued at close to €8 billion.