Martin Marietta acquires Lhoist North America for $13.5 billion

Martin Marietta Materials agreed to acquire Lhoist North America, a producer of lime and industrial mineral products, in a $13.5 billion cash-and-stock deal, the company said Monday.

The transaction, which is the largest in Martin Marietta's history, according to The Wall Street Journal, would position the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company as the leading U.S. producer of lime and limestone solutions. Shares of Martin Marietta dropped roughly 3% in Monday premarket trading.

Under the terms of the deal, Martin Marietta will pay $7 billion in cash and $6.5 billion in stock, valued using a volume-weighted average share price over the 15 consecutive trading days before signing. The Berghmans family, which owns the privately held Belgian industrial company Lhoist Group — the parent of Lhoist North America — would hold roughly 15% of Martin Marietta upon closing and would have the right to appoint one director and one observer to Martin Marietta's board of directors, the company said.

Through the deal, Martin Marietta would absorb Lhoist North America's network of 20 quarries and production facilities along with 45 distribution terminals, plus a reserve base exceeding 2 billion ton

Fuente original: Yahoo Finance (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/martin-marietta-acquires-lhoist-north-133216731.html)