Hints and tips:
...“I think we need a European wake-up on this point,” French president Emmanuel Macron told executives from domestic industrial companies such as glassmaker Saint-Gobain and cement maker Lafarge in a speech...
...It’s just the latest deal from Holcim, which itself is the product of a megamerger nearly a decade ago with France’s Lafarge....
...But after meeting Siemens and Alstom executives this week, Ms Vestager pointedly gave a speech in Berlin to warn that Europe could not “build these champions by undermining competition”....
...The deal is depicted by French advisers as proof of a renewed Franco-German entente, just as the Europhile Mr Macron is seeking to convince Berlin to back ambitious reforms of the eurozone in a speech on...
...Henri Poupart-Lafarge, Alstom chief executive, said: “If I have one regret it is using that phrase ‘European champion’.”...
...To the commission, it seemed like the companies were relying on political brute force from Paris and Berlin....
...Alstom chief executive, Henri Poupart-Lafarge, will run the combined group and the German conglomerate will own a 50 per cent stake in the combined French company....
...Two recent examples are AB InBev’s merger with SABMiller, and Holcim’s acquisition of Lafarge....
...Mr Poupart-Lafarge is to head the new entity, which will remain listed in Paris....
...Signalling business: Berlin....
...In exchange, the German company agreed to keep Frenchman Henri Poupart-Lafarge as chief executive of the new entity for four years....
...Alstom boss Henri Poupart-Lafarge is expected to take over as chief executive of the new entity, which will have combined revenues of €16bn....
...Last year Lone Star acquired a gypsum wallboard making business from Lafarge, the world’s biggest cement maker....
...Stumble into a Berlin nightclub this week, and you may bump into a gyrating private-equity executive....
...Companies complaining about the currency effect range from Airbus to Sanofi, the pharmaceutical group, and Lafarge, the cement maker....
...In recent months, the government has largely stood by as first Publicis, the advertising group, and then Lafarge, the big cement maker, entered mergers that were in effect takeovers by foreign rivals – respectively...
...Henri Poupart-Lafarge, chief executive of Alstom’s trainmaking division, said a change would open the US market up to more and more of Alstom’s international products....
...France’s Lafarge , the world’s biggest cement maker, fell 7.2 per cent to €27.01....
...Cement producer Lafarge dropped 1.9 per cent to €42.97 after New York-listed Cemex, the third-biggest cement maker in the world, cut its 2010 growth estimates....
...But heavily indebted cement maker Lafarge sunk 3.9 per cent over the week to €41.80 as its chief executive sounded a cautious tone for the second half of 2010....
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