February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — The American arm of the Irish building materials group CRH announced plans for further expansion this week with the proposed purchase of all of the operations of U.S. Aggregates Inc in the western and southeastern U.S. for $140 million.
USAI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.
Purchase by the Oldcastle Materials Group is still subject to consent by the bankruptcy court and expiration of the waiting period under United States anti-trust laws.
A company statement said that as part of the bankruptcy procedure a competitive bidding auction will be conducted which will allow other qualified parties the opportunity to bid for the assets of USAI.
USAI has a fully integrated construction materials business in Utah, Arizona and Nevada with aggregate, asphalt and ready-mixed concrete operations which Oldcastle say would be a “superb fit” with its existing operations in Utah.
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In the southeast, USAI has an aggregates business in the Birmingham, Alabama and Chattanooga, Tennessee areas. The proposed deal also includes a ready-mixed concrete business in Chattanooga.
Tom Hill, CEO of Oldcastle, said the deal would allow it to further expand operations in the Mountain region, in particular increasing its ability to expand production to serve the Salt Lake City area and extending business into the Cedar City/St George region in southern Utah.
“We expect to improve the profitability of the assets acquired through elimination of duplicate costs as well as greater efficiencies in purchasing, production and transport,” he said.