A sack topples over

Lafarge and Holcim will now become LafargeHolcim. Perhaps. Because the press release in which the two construction-materials corporate groups announced this news in April sounds more like a declaration of intent. The text is formulated accordingly cautiously: “With this merger, LafargeHolcim would have a stronger presence in the global construction materials industry.” And: “The joint activities would include 90 production sites in the construction materials industry worldwide.” Likewise: “Following the merger, they would have the most balanced and most diversified portfolio in the industry.” And so on (see p. 13). Quite a lot of “woulds” for a press release. That may be due to the stringent rules of the financial services authorities. But for editorial offices this style is still less than satisfying.

“And in China a sack of rice toppled over.” – With this saying, editors in Germany like to make known that news containing many “woulds” and few facts is of little interest to them –  just as little as the said sack of rice in China. When a small company distributes a press release of this kind, the odds are that the editorial staff who receives it drops it into the round file. But the text we are interested in here was released by the two top players on the international construction materials industry charts. And already the media storm begins to race around the globe: some speculate about threatening massive price increases for cement; others puzzle over an imminent backlash of the competition – nothing but speculation.

The only fact that remains: A sack of cement has toppled over in Switzerland, even though it’s a large one. As soon as the media dust has settled we will see whether the antitrust authorities worldwide have given the green light and whether the bags of the merged conglomerates will be emblazoned with the logo of LafargeHolcim.