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- "The negative outlook on the ratings implies that we currently see at least a one-in-three chance of a downgrade over the next one to two years"

- "We could also lower the ratings if the impact of the conflict on Israel's economic growth, fiscal position, and balance of payments proves more significant than we currently project"

North American operations set to be listed under break-up plan unveiled alongside announcement of new CEO

The Swiss cement giant Holcim plans to spin off its North American business and list it in the US, as it seeks to unlock value and speed up growth for the unit.

The Zug-based group also announced that the head of its European business, Miljan Gutovic, would take over as group chief executive from May. Outgoing chief Jan Jenisch will remain chair and lead the planned break-up.

“We are too successful in North America, we are too big to manage this as a subsidiary,” Jenisch told the Financial Times. “We have all the tools, we have all the supply chain in place. But we needed more focused management.”

Holcim was formed nearly a decade ago from the merger of France’s Lafarge and Switzerland’s Holcim, a deal that created the world’s largest cement company. But the combination was complicated by competing egos among senior leadership, and an earlier scandal involving payments by Lafarge to terrorist organisations in Syria dogged the company in the wake of the deal.

Holcim’s shares subsequently struggled to gain ground. Under the plan laid out on Sunday, Holcim will complete a “full capital market separation” of its North American business, with the final structure of the spin-off due to be finalised later this year and the US listing expected to complete in the first half of 2025 once shareholder approval has been obtained.

European companies have looked to US listings for the higher valuations and greater market liquidity and analyst coverage they can bring. CRH, the world’s largest building materials group, last year moved its primary listing from London to New York. Its shares have climbed almost 50 per cent over the past year, with CRH now valued at £39.2bn ($49.8bn).

Although Holcim has a market capitalisation of about SFr37.2bn ($43.1bn), Jenisch said the North American business could be valued in the “ballpark” of $30bn despite just accounting for about 40 per cent of sales last year.

The North American business is estimated to have generated about $11bn of net sales in 2023, but the company said it aimed to increase that to more than $20bn by the end of the decade as it sought to capitalise on a boom in construction and US infrastructure investment sparked by Biden administration policies.

It has about 850 sites and 16,000 employees across the US and Canada, and has built up the North American business with acquisitions. It agreed to buy Firestone Building Products from Japan’s Bridgestone Corporation for $3.4bn in 2021.

The company had a “pipeline of acquisition projects” in the US, Jenisch told the FT. Having US-listed shares to help fund acquisitions would further aid the North American business’s dealmaking efforts, he said.

“Decarbonisation and M&A” would also drive growth at the Swiss-based business after the spin-off, the company said.

Makers of building materials such as Holcim have fallen out of favour with more climate-conscious investors in recent years, because of the carbon footprint of products such as cement and concrete. Holcim has sought to shift its business towards greener construction in recent years, and emphasised its role in “decarbonising building”.

Holcim will remain listed in Switzerland after the spin-off, with a presence across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger quit regional bloc in escalation of tension West African states accuse Ecowas of being a threat to its members and under the influence of foreign powers

West African states accuse Ecowas of being a threat to its members and under the influence of foreign powers

Three west African states ruled by military juntas said they were leaving a key regional economic bloc in response to sanctions and pressure to hold democratic elections, in a sign of rising tensions in the region.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger said in a joint statement that they were leaving the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) with immediate effect, marking a significant deterioration of relations between the 15 states that until now formed the bloc.

Following recent coups, Ecowas had already suspended the three nations from the union, which promotes economic integration and freedom of movement.

The group imposed sanctions on Niger after its democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was removed from office in a coup in July, measures that included the closure of all air and land borders, the freezing of state assets and the prevention of financial transactions with other institutions in the bloc.

The sanctions cut Niger off from the two countries from which it imports most of its food and other essentials — Benin and Nigeria — leading to skyrocketing food prices in one of the world’s poorest countries.

Mali has been under the rule of its current military junta since coups in 2020 and 2021, while a junta led by army captain Ibrahim Traoré has been in power in Burkina Faso since October 2022.

The three countries claimed the Ecowas sanctions were “inhumane and irresponsible” and a “violation” of the bloc’s own rules. They also said the bloc was “under the influence of foreign powers”, arguing it had become a “threat” to its members.

An Ecowas spokesperson said on Sunday it had not received any “direct formal notification” that the three nations were exiting the bloc.

France and the US have condemned the coups, with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been forced to withdraw troops from all three countries, saying in September that he was “very worried” about the region.

Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have deepened ties since Bazoum was removed from office. He was the west’s last reliable ally in the Sahel, a semi-arid strip south of the Sahara where Russia has begun to exert its influence.

All three countries face significant levels of insecurity caused by al-Qaeda and Isis-linked Islamist insurgents, which have wreaked havoc for more than a decade, killing thousands and leaving millions more displaced.

They formed the Alliance of Sahel States in September with the stated aim of providing mutual protection in the face of external aggression or rebellion from within. It was set up in part as a retaliation against Ecowas’s threat of military action against Niger last year if Bazoum, who remains in detention, was not reinstated as president.

Nigeria’s foreign minister Yusuf Tuggar told the FT in an interview last week that the sanctions on Niger would only be lifted if Bazoum and his allies were released.

Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group is active in Mali and Russian soldiers were deployed to Burkina Faso last week. Moscow also reopened its embassy in the Burkinabé capital Ouagadougou for the first time in three decades.

The move to quit Ecowas came after a delegation from the economic bloc failed to make it to Niger on Thursday for mediation talks due to a faulty aircraft, leading the junta’s prime minister to criticise the bloc for its “bad faith”.