Funny how things come around again. In late 2012 Breedon Aggregates balked at matching the £285 million that Mittal Investments was prepared to pay for the cement interests that had fallen loose from the merger of Anglo-American and Lafarge. The company was small and growing fast, seeking a big deal that would kick it into the big league.
Now Breedon is prepared to buy those same assets, owned by Hope Construction Materials and shorn of a quarry joint venture worth £40 million, for £336 million, or 37 per cent more than it was not prepared to pay then. What changed?
Well, the UK construction industry is moving ahead at a faster rate than could have been expected then. Breedon is now forecasting output to rise