Camargo Correa to Buy Loma Negra

Camargo Correa, Brazil’s fourth-biggest cement producer, said it has agreed to buy Loma Negra, Argentina’s largest cement company, for $1.03 billion in cash and assumed debt. Camargo didn’t provide more details about the deal. Loma Negra produces more than 3 million tons of cement per year in nine plants in Argentina and employs 1,900 people. The sale is subject to approval by Argentina’s National Commission for the Defense of Competition. This is the third time an iconic Argentine company has sold out to a Brazilian competitor after brewery Quilmes and oil producer Perez Companc sold out in 2002.