Holcim's Schmidheiny wants better deal in Lafarge merger

Holcim's largest stakeholder, Thomas Schmidheiny, wants a better deal for the Swiss cement maker's shareholders in its planned merger with Lafarge, SonntagsZeitung reported, citing people close to the Swiss billionaire.

The merger with France's Lafarge to create the world's biggest cement maker was agreed last April but analysts have since flagged a potential divergence between the two companies' earnings prospects, raising the possibility of a renegotiation of terms.

Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung said that Holcim board member Schmidheiny, who owns 20.1 percent of the company according to Thomson Reuters data, sees two possible solutions. One is to weigh the exchange ratio of shares in favour of Holcim investors. Another is a special dividend.

The paper also quoted another board member as saying the deal will not work in its current form. The proposed deal would see each Lafarge share being swapped for one Holcim share.

A Holcim spokesman declined to comment on the article, but a representative for Schmidheiny said the industrial logic for the merger has not changed.

SonntagsZeitung also reported that Swiss shareholder group Ethos, which represents around 200 pension funds, is against the deal as it stands and will tell Holcim's board that it will advise members to vote against the merger unless there is a change to the exchange ratio.

Ethos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.