CRH confirms $7.34 billion deal to buy assets from Lafarge SA, Holcim: WSJ

(Reuters) - Irish building materials company CRH Plc confirmed that it agreed to pay $7.34 billion for assets from cement companies Lafarge SA and Holcim Ltd , the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. CRH will fund the deal with cash, debt and a 9.99 percent equity placing, the Journal reported. A Holcim spokesman confirmed that the company received a binding offer from CRH, according to the Journal. The newspaper reported on Saturday that Lafarge and Holcim were nearing a deal to sell at least $7 billion in assets, citing people familiar with the matter. The Journal noted that the sale of the assets in Europe, Canada and elsewhere was a precondition of winning antitrust approval for the roughly $40 billion pending merger between France's Lafarge and Switzerland's Holcim. CRH was a finalist in an auction for the assets, competing in recent days with a private-equity consortium including Blackstone Group LP, Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Journal had reported earlier. (Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Alison Williams and Stephen Powell)