City File: Evered bid makes sense for RMC

IS RMC going to make a bid for building supplies rival Evered Bardon? This is the rumour in the market, and RMC will be under pressure to reveal its intentions when it announces its annual results on Friday.

Massive write-offs - a hangover from when the Abdullah brothers were building up the group in the late 1980s - have left Evered with heavy borrowings. A big brother, such as the ultra-conservative RMC, might be very welcome.

RMC, for its part, needs to show some strength in markets other than Germany. Both the US and the UK aggregates businesses have been poor, and Germany, with its emphasis on house building, is predicted by analysts to contribute half RMC's expected pounds 150m full- year profits. Despite the weakness of the German economy, RMC still looks the pick of the building materials sector.