Another week and we have another large heavy building materials acquisition in the US. Martin Marietta said it was spending US$13.5bn to buy Lhoist North America (LNA). This time the target is a lime company. Let’s find out what’s been happening with this one.
In an earnings call this week, Martin Marietta’s CEO Ward Nye described the deal as “totally in our wheelhouse” and one covering “mission critical products.” He went on to highlight the lime business’ higher margins, strong market position, diversified end markets and pricing power. He also noted the sector’s resource scarcity and its high barriers to entry. These are clearly the kind of comments investors might want to hear about a multi-billion dollar investment. Despite this, however, the stock price of Martin Marietta fell slightly after the announcement.
The deal has been described as a “definitive agreement to combine” with the North America-based subsidiary of Lhoist Group rather than a plain acquisition. This starts to make sense because Martin Marietta is buying LNA but Lhoist’s owners will also gain a stake in its subsidiary’s new owner. Martin Marietta will pay US$13.5bn in cash and shares of its common stock for the transaction. The deal will make FGI, the Berghmans family holding group that owns Lhoist, the largest single shareholder of Martin Marietta, with representation on its board of directors. Lhoist's operations in Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and North Africa will remain fully owned by FGI.
The attraction of the deal is that it gives Martin Marietta control of a major lime producer in North America with over 2Bnt of limestone reserves in “Sun Belt metropolitan corridors.” Martin Marietta reckons these reserves will last over 200 years. LNA operates a network of 20 quarries and production facilities and 45 distribution terminals. The privately owned subsidiary reportedly generated sales of US$1.8bn and adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$786m in 2025. In that earnings call Nye explained that his company is aiming to target its aggregates, lime and specialty products business lines at “...infrastructure and industrial mega projects, including highways, data centres, semiconductor fabrication, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities across the southern US, most notably in Texas, our largest and one of the most attractive construction markets in North America.” Focusing on Texas he went on to point out, for example, the potential synergies between lime and aggregates products for road building. He also noted the role of lime in demand for steel products in the southern US and the boosting role of America First government trade policy.
As discussed in last week’s Global Cement Weekly the Martin Marietta deal ties in with an ongoing trend in market reorganisation in heavy building materials companies in North America. CRH’s recent agreement to buy Arcosa, a US-based supplier of infrastructure-related products and services, for US$8.6bn is one example. Quikrete’s acquisition of Summit Materials for US$11.5bn in early 2025 is another. Martin Marietta is linked to that last one since it sold its cement and concrete business in Texas to Quikrete in exchange for the latter’s aggregates business and US$450m in cash in early 2026. Other instances of large deals in the US-based building materials sector include Lowe's acquisition of Foundation Building Materials for US$8.8bn in 2025 and US Depot’s purchase of SRS Distribution for around US$18bn in 2024. Both of these deals covered the distribution of light building materials but are indicative of the state of the sector.
The other aspect to note with Martin Marietta and LNA is the geographic focus on North America. The continued involvement of FGI in LNA is similar to the spinoff of Amrize by Holcim. Once again a Europe-based building materials company is separating off its division in North America. One smaller and anecdotal reflection on the perceived strength of the US cement market can be seen in some other news stories we reported upon this week. These included two items on exports from North Africa to the US and the opening of a new cement import terminal in Florida.
To conclude, here is one more large deal in the US building materials sector. Martin Marietta looks set to return, in part, to selling calcined building products. It’s not worth reading too much into that dip in Martin Marietta’s share price after the deal was announced but it may suggest that the market is reflecting upon the size of the proposed transaction.
