Heidelberg seeks to lower debt by selling Hanson unit

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Hanson is Britain's biggest supplier of bricks. Its sale will see Heidelberg jettisoning most of its half-billion pound European building-products operation.

"It's all up for sale, it's just a question of timing," said Hanson UK spokesman David Weeks.

"With the smaller businesses, we're at an early stage. We're just sending teasers out." The German cement maker is owned by billionaire Ludwig Merckle. He took over the company earlier this year from his father, who killed himself as the global economic downturn risked him losing control of his empire.

Hanson was taken over in a seven billion pound deal in 2007, debt which is now seen as too cumbersome to maintain.

Heidelberg joins Cemex SAB and France's Lafarge SA in pursuing disposals after a global slump in the construction business left them struggling with acquisition-fuelled borrowings.