world's 2nd largest cement producer. As a trade-off, the Pesenti family gets 5% of the newly formed group, making them the second largest shareholders after the Merckle family In May 2016, the European commission approved the deal. The acquisition led to 400 lay-offs of Italcementi employees in Italy. The deal was announced a week after Lafarge merged with Holcim, and amid rumors that Dangote Cement was eyeing an acquisition of Italcementi. On 12 October 2016, HeidelbergCement purchased the remaining Italcementi shares. Therefore, HeidelbergCement is now the sole shareholder of Italcementi and owns 100% of the share capital. Activity The Italcementi Group is based in the town of Bergamo, in northern Italy. It has a staff of more than 20,000 employees, of which 400 are engaged in technical support and research activities under the group company C.T.G SpA (CTG stands for 'Centro Tecnico di Gruppo). Italcementi's annual sales are over 6 billion euros. Italcementi is implemented in 22 countries: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Canada, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Gambia, Greece, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and the United States. Over 60% of its sales come from the cement sector which is combined with the production of ready-mixed concrete and aggregates. It boasts of a global network including 62 cement plants (cement + clinker 54 MT), 12 grinding centers, 4 terminals. (one of which is also a grinding center), 570 concrete batching units (20.8 million cubic metres) and 152 quarries aggregate quarries (56.7 MT). Italcementi is controlled by Italmobiliare, based in Milan and quoted on the Borsa Italiana. The whole group has been controlled by the Italian Pesenti family since its foundation in 1864. See also List of Italian companies References External links Cement companies of Italy Companies based in Bergamo Companies established in 1864 Italian companies established in 1864 Multinational companies headquartered in Italy Conglomerate companies of Italy Italian brands