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Coco Paving acquires Lafarge construction assets

May 8, 2009  By  Andy Bateman


May 8, 2009 – Aggregates & Roadbuilding’s cover story for the March April issue featured Coco Paving Inc., on the theme “Concrete Investment pays off.” Yesterday’s announcement underscores the size of the payoff.

Coco Paving Inc. confirmed its acquisition of the Ontario and Quebec asphalt and paving construction operations of Lafarge Eastern Canada.

 

Upon completion of the deal, a CNW release adds, Coco Paving will grow to 40 locations and add over 1,000 new employees to its base of 200 in Windsor, Ontario. The acquisition includes 31 asphalt plants in Ontario, 2 in Quebec and additional regional offices. Financing for the deal was underwritten by the Bank of Montreal and the transaction is expected to close the first week of June.

 

"Coco Paving is poised for growth and could not pass up the opportunity to become a much bigger player in the paving industry," said Jenny Coco, CEO of Coco Paving. "While a lot of companies are retrenching, we're positioning our company within Ontario to take full advantage of unprecedented infrastructure developments. The plants we will acquire will give us a much stronger position from which to compete for more municipal contracts in the GTA and in Eastern Ontario as far as Ottawa, not to mention our power base of South Western Ontario."

 

The acquisition will make Coco Paving the largest asphalt producer and road paving contractor in Ontario. In terms of size of business, Coco Paving has traditionally focused on a small number of large-scale projects. Its current largest project is a $94.7 million contract with the Ministry of Transportation for road construction on Highway 401 in the Windsor area. "It's a good news story, which is a fresh change from the doom and gloom of the business pages these days. This is a win-win situation for Coco and Lafarge because no jobs are being lost in the deal," added Rocky Coco, President of Coco Paving.

 

While Coco Paving's regional business operations will remain in Windsor, the company's new head office will be located in Toronto to make the integration as smooth as possible and to build for the future. "We are opening an office in Toronto in order to be closer to our customers, suppliers and partners," said Jenny Coco. "No jobs in Windsor will be affected by this decision. In fact, this transaction strengthens our already vibrant business in Windsor."

 


 

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