Supreme Court upholds AMCU's permission for CRH to acquire two Ukrainian cement plants
The Supreme Court upheld the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine's approval of the subsidiary of the Irish company CRH's acquisition of two Ukrainian plants from the Italian company Buzzi for EUR 100 million.
As indicated in the decision published in the court register, the cassation appeal of Industrial and Construction Group Kovalska LLC, which challenged the transaction, was dismissed.
As reported, in the fall of 2024, CRH, the world's leading manufacturer of construction materials, completed the closing of the deal to acquire the Dyckerhoff group of companies from Buzzi in Ukraine for EUR 100 million after receiving permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. Buzzi's assets in Ukraine include two cement plants: Volyn-cement (Zdolbuniv, Rivne region) and Pivden-cement (Olshanske, Mykolaiv region). One of the conditions for the acquisition was the attraction of an independent investor for 25-28% of the shares. In the summer of 2025, reports appeared that Irish Divinereach Ltd, controlled by the O'Reilly family, owners of Hyundai Ireland car distributors, had bought 25% of Dyckerhoff shares from CRH.
The industrial and construction company Kovalska, which is the largest concrete producer in Ukraine, challenged the deal in court twice. In its first lawsuit against the AMCU, Kovalska demanded to be recognized as a third party in order to protect its economic interests. Then the court refused.
In October 2024, Kovalska again tried to challenge the deal, demanding to cancel the AMCU's permission to buy and sell plants. The Kyiv Commercial Court then satisfied its lawsuit, and the AMCU appealed. In June 2025, the Court of Appeal supported the AMCU's position, recognizing the conditions it had established as sufficient to maintain competition in the cement market. Kovalska continued to challenge this decision by filing a cassation appeal. On September 11, 2025, the Supreme Court issued a final verdict - upholding the AMCU's decision.