Marwyn bids $6bn for Tarmac

Tarmac, the building materials group, could be offloaded by its owner, Anglo American, after the mining group yesterday received an offer of as much $6bn from Marwyn Materials.

Anglo refused to comment on the deal, but reasserted that Tarmac, and the company's other non-core assets, were all for sale. A spokesman stressed that Anglo would wait for an appropriate price. Analysts have suggested that Tarmac could be worth between $4bn and $6bn.

Marwyn, an acquisition vehicle, is often backed by the private equity group CVC Capital Partners. A spokeswoman for CVC refused to comment yesterday. Under any deal it is understood that Anglo will retain a minority stake in the company.

The miner has already offloaded a number of its non-core assets after fending off a merger approach from Xstrata last year. At the time, chairman Sir John Parker promised investors that the group would streamline itself in return for shareholder support in rejecting Xstrata's bid.