Tarmac for sale at £3bn

Hundreds of Black Country workers were left fearing for their jobs today after Wolverhampton-based Tarmac was put up for sale with a price tag of more than £3 billion.

The bombshell news follows more than a year of uncertainty and denials from the Tarmac management that the business would eventually be sold off.

The company, which dates back more than 100 years and supplies material for road-making and other construction projects, employs 650 employees at its traditional headquarters in Ettingshall.

Only 12 months ago its owners, mining giant Anglo American, which today unveiled record profits, gave a pledge that the Wolverhampton business would not be offloaded.

The U-turn comes after the appointment of Cynthia Carroll as its new chief executive in March. She launched a review of the group's sellable assets.

Anglo said today the plan to sell formed part of a restructuring launched in 2005 to focus on the group's core mining operations.

Reports today suggested bids of at least £3 billion would be generated.

Tarmac employs more than 12,500 people worldwide.

It was bought by Anglo American in 2000 in a £1.25 billion deal following the split that created the separate Carillion construction business, also based in Wolverhampton.

Carillion has gone from strength to strength and last year bought its rival Mowlem in a £313 million deal that also won it billions of pounds of Ministry of Defence work.

Last year Tarmac generated earnings of £265 million.

Its price tag is based on massive demand for its concrete and tarmac with major European building projects in the next few years, including the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Anglo unveiled its figures for the first half of this year, revealing a record half-time profit of £1.5 billion.