Cemex Bid for Rinker Advances

Cemex, the third-largest cement producer in the world, received clearance from United States antitrust regulators for its $11.7 billion hostile offer for the Rinker Group of Australia. The Justice Department said Cemex, based in Monterrey, Mexico, had agreed to sell 39 operations in Florida and Arizona to preserve price competition for large transportation projects in the two states. Rinker, based in Sydney, a building materials maker, gets about 80 percent of its sales in the United States.