This is the end of a long and sometimes tumultuous history of the stock market. Swiss cement producer Holcim, who got married in 2015.between equalswith the French Lafarge, will turn away from the Paris stock exchange. Exit from Euronext Paris should take place on December 30. Holcim’s share will then only be traded on the SIX Swiss exchange in Zurich.
The company explains this decision with low volumes sold in Paris. This withdrawal will also enablereduce administrative costs“. Lots of quotesOutside of fashion, they are very expensive and restrictive and, with rare exceptions, don’t do muchconfirms the analyst.
Bad news
After the merger, the new entity initially combined the names of the two companies to become LafargeHolcim. However, the center of gravity has gradually shifted to Switzerland. In May 2021, the LafargeHolcim name was abandoned, retaining only Holcim, with the aim of “update and simplify the company name for greater efficiency and impact“, the company then explained. Lafarge became the simple brand of the group, thus completing the absorption process.
At the same time, Holcim moved its headquarters from the historic site of Rapperswil-Jonah to the city of Zug in the canton of the same name, known for its favorable taxes. Shareholders overwhelmingly (99.6%) approved these changes. The name Lafarge was obviously hard to bear. He was significantly confused by the French group’s questioning in the Syria scandal surrounding the Jalabiya cement plant, northeast of Aleppo.
The case erupted in 2016, a year after the merger with Holcim, but related to events dating back to 2013 and 2014 during the Syrian civil war. The management of the group was then entrusted to the German Jan Jensich, the former head of the Swiss Sika. Since then, he has undertaken an extensive restructuring of the group. In order to reduce the dependence on cement, which is known to be a very polluting activity. The group has multiplied disposals and acquisitions to bring the greener construction and renovation trade to 30% of operations, up from less than 10% at the end of 2020.
The departure of Holcim is bad news for the Paris stock exchange. This de-rating is in addition to the planned one of EDF or Somfy announced last week. In total, around thirty companies have announced delisting from the Paris listing since the beginning of the year, compared to only around ten IPOs.
Source: Le Figaro
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