Martin Marietta boosts building material supplies in $2.05 billion deal for Blue Water units By Reuters

(Reuters) -Building material supplier Martin Marietta said on Monday it would acquire 20 active aggregates operations of Blue Water Industries for $2.05 billion in cash.

Construction aggregates are raw materials that are extracted from quarries and pits such as sand, gravel and crushed stones.

Demand for construction materials is on the rise, driven by ongoing enhancements to roads, rail and other transportation infrastructure in the U.S., facilitated by President Joe Biden Administration’s $1 trillion package signed into law in 2021.

Blue Water, an aggregate and asphalt producer as well as a paving contractor located in the southeastern U.S., will continue to operate its aggregates operations in North Carolina and central Florida and its marine terminal business.

The transaction is expected to close later this year, the companies said.

Martin Marietta, which is set to announce its fourth-quarter results later this week, will provide more details on the transaction on its post-earnings conference call.

North Carolina-based Martin Marietta operates more than 500 locations and supplies aggregates through its network in 28 states, Canada and the Bahamas.

The company had said during the third-quarter its divestitures and sales would help it redeploy the proceeds into pure-play aggregates acquisitions to bolster operations.