Lafarge

The French company is a world leader in the provision of construction materials. It operates in six core business areas - cement, concrete, aggregates, gypsum, speciality products and roofing. Founded in 1833, it is active in 60 countries and employs nearly 65,000 people. Mr Michel Rose is the firm's managing director, while it is chaired by Mr Bertrand Collomb.

Earlier this month, it reported sales of €9.8 billion (£7.7 billion) for 1998, slightly below expectations. This, combined with a slowdown of growth in the fourth quarter, caused the shares to slip and led some analysts to cut their 1999 forecasts.

Like rival firm Holderbank, the company has been expanding in the Far East. It recently announced plans to invest more than $25 million (€22.2 million) to build an aluminate plant in the Chinese city of Tianjin. It already operates a cement plant and a concrete plant in Beijing, a plasterboard factory in Shanghai and four concrete roofing tile plants in southern Guangdong province, while it has agreement to build a new cement plant in Chengdu.

Holderbank

The company was founded in 1912 in the village of Holderbank in the Swiss canton of Aargau, around 30 minutes west of Zurich. From modest beginnings it has grown to become the world's leading cement producer with shareholdings in more than 60 countries on all continents. It also supplies aggregates (gravel and sand), ready-mixed concrete, concrete chemicals and construction-related activities.

In 1997, the firm reported revenues of 11.3 billion Swiss francs (€7.0 billion) and sales are expected to have topped 12 billion francs last year.

Around one-third of the company's stock is owned by chairman and managing director Mr Thomas Schmidheiny. Holderbank has been busy on the acquisition trail in the Far East in recent months. In December, it snapped up the New Zealand company Milburn. In January, it went on to take a 23 per cent stake in Chinese cement maker Huaxin and also bought 51 per cent of Sri Lanka's Ruhunu Cement Co.

However, the company's exposure to Brazil has caused some unease in the market and led to downgrades by some institutions, including Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, although CSFB recently reiterated its "buy" recommendation on the stock because of its broad geographic diversity, its focus on high-margin cement business, continuing cost-cutting efforts and recent repositioning in some markets.