Building materials group CRH (Dublin / Ireland; www.crh.com) has acquired lime specialist Fels-Werke (Goslar / Germany; www.fels.de) from the Xella Group (Duisburg / Germany; www.xella.com). The competition authorities have given the go-ahead for the acquisition worth approximately EUR 600m (enterprise value). Fels-Werke has been a division of Xella, a building and insulation materials manufacturer, since 2001. In August 2017, CRH had announced it would divest its Americas Distribution business to Beacon Roofing Supply (Herndon, Virginia / USA; www.beaconroofingsupply.com) for EUR 2.2 bn in cash, with the proceeds being "reallocated to value creating acquisitions and investments."

Fels-Werke's marketing director, Bernd Röwert, said the Goslar-based company will benefit from CRH's expertise, and develop new products and applications together. Rock-lime specialities are used, among other things, as fillers in plastic compounding. According to CRH, its acquisition of Fels makes CRH the second largest lime supplier in Europe. Fels-Werke operates lime production plants in Germany, the Czech Republic and Russia.