The story
On 7 April 2014, Lafarge and Holcim announced a merger project to create LafargeHolcim. With a combined market value exceeding $50 billion, the merger was the second largest announced worldwide in 2014. On 10 July 2015, the two companies completed the merger and created LafargeHolcim. On 15 July 2015, the new LafargeHolcim Group was officially launched.
In June 2016, Le Monde reported that Lafarge paid taxes to ISIS middlemen in 2013 to 2014 to keep using their factory in Jalabiya, Northeastern Syria. On 2 March 2017, the Board of Directors of LafargeHolcim issued a statement indicating that the measures required to continue operations at the plant were unacceptable.
A comprehensive and independent investigation revealed significant errors in judgment that were inconsistent with the company's code of conduct and the company took action. There have been significant changes and developments made to the compliance program and infrastructure since the time of the alleged misconduct.
The former CEO, Eric Olsen, resigned in April 2017 because of the "strong tensions" incurred by the news. However, an investigation conducted by Baker McKenzie concluded Olsen was not responsible for the payments.
In an interview with the French newspapers LeFigaro, Beat Hess, chairman of the board said: "Unacceptable errors were made that the Group regrets and condemns. It's far easier to say this in hindsight but the Group certainly pulled out of Syria too late. All of this should have been avoided".
Sherpa filed a lawsuit against Lafarge over the payments. In March 2017, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticized LafargeHolcim for competing to build the wall on the border of Mexico–United States border promised by President Donald Trump. They were also criticised by presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.
In May 2017, Jan Jenisch was appointed as the new CEO of LafargeHolcim Group.
In May 2018, LafargeHolcim announced the next steps in the simplification of corporate organization. The corporate management positions in Switzerland will be moved to the company's Holderbank site and a new corporate office in Zug.
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In January 2019, LafargeHolcim completed the sale of its 80.6% stake in PT Holcim Indonesia Tbk, its Indonesian cement business, to Semen Indonesia Group for US$1.41 billion.
During the summer, in July 2019, LafargeHolcim introduced Plants of Tomorrow, a four-year program that will see the utilization of automation technologies and robotics, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance and digital-twin technologies across their entire cement production process.
In August 2019, the firm announced a "commercial breakthrough for low-carbon cement", Solidia Concrete, which "reduces the overall carbon footprint in precast concrete by 70%".
Later in the year, in Fall 2019, LafargeHolcim announced the allocation of 160 million Swiss francs ($161 million) on 80 projects across Europe to cut annual emissions from its cement manufacturing processes by 15% by 2022.
In September 2020, LafargeHolcim joins the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) “Business Ambition for 1.5°C” becoming the first global building materials company to sign the pledge with intermediate targets for 2030, validated by SBTi.
On May 4, 2021, shareholders voted on changing the company name back to Holcim. The new identity of the company was launched on July 8, 2021. This name change applies only to the group company name with all market brands remaining in existence.
In September 2021, Holcim reached an agreement to sell its Brazilian cement business to Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional at an enterprise value of US$1.025 billion.
In May 2022, Adani Group acquired Holcim's stake in Ambuja Cements and ACC for US$10.5 billion. The sale marked Holcim's exit from India after 17 years of operations as part of a strategy to focus on core markets.
In January 2024, Holcim announced plans to spin off 100% of its North American operations and on June 23, 2025, the company completed this process, with the listing of Amrize. Holcim will remain listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Holcim will execute its strategy NextGen Growth 2030 unveiled in March 2025.
In October 2025, Holcim agreed to acquire Xella for €1.85 billion.
In April 2026, a French court found Lafarge guilty of financing terrorist groups in Syria after it paid millions of euros between 2013–2014, to organizations like ISIS and al-Nusra in order to keep its cement plant operating during the civil war. The court ruled these payments were driven by profit motives, effectively supporting extremist groups, and also convicted several former executives involved in the scheme.
From Wikipedia’s article on Holcim Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5