Holcim eyes $30 billion valuation with North American business listing, picks new CEO

Switzerland's Holcim will spin off 100% of its North American operations in a New York flotation which could value the business at $30 billion, the building materials giant said on Sunday, as it also named a new chief executive.

Its shares were 5.45% higher in early Europe trading Monday.

Miljan Gutovic, currently head of Europe at Holcim, will replace Jan Jenisch as CEO beginning May 1, said the company, one of the world's biggest cement makers.

In the biggest shake-up at Holcim since the Swiss company took over French rival Lafarge in 2015, the divestment will likely be completed in the first half of 2025.

"Our North American business is a real rock star. We doubled the company just in the last four years by strong organic growth, by acquisitions. And we have leading margins, the EBITDA margin is already above 27%," Jenisch told CNBC on Monday.

"Now I'm happy we can kick off the next level of performance for the business to take it to $20 billion of sales. We want to separate it to have more focus on the North American customers, on getting all the synergies from our supply chain."

The spin-off could value the new company at around $30 billion, Jenisch told reporters, with Holcim retaining no stake.

"We're going to do a full capital market separation of our North American business, so we will list 100% of the business on the New York Stock Exchange," said Jenisch, who was confident of getting shareholder backing for the flotation.

Jenisch told CNBC that Holcim's operating model was already focused on North America, with five R&D centers in the region. The company sees "minimum implementation costs" of the spin-off, he added.

The U.S. business aims to boost annual sales from around $11 billion at present to more than $20