Adds more details, background

By John Revill and Divya Chowdhury

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Holcim HOLN.S plans to make around 15 acquisitions in 2026, CEO Miljan Gutovic told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, maintaining the pace of the building materials company's M&A drive.

The Swiss company will stick to smaller deals while keeping an eye on cement-sector consolidation in Europe, Gutovic said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"We have a healthy pipeline of active projects," Gutovic said. "I would say we could make around 15 deals this year."

Holcim announced 15 acquisitions in 2025 as it reshaped its operations after spinning off its North American business into a separate company called Amrize AMRZ.S.

The new round of deals would be focused on cement, aggregates, recycling of construction demolition materials and building solution products, like roofing, mortars and walling, Gutovic said.

"In 2024, we bought four recycling companies, that work with construction-demolition materials, and in 2025 we bought three more. I would like to continue in that area," he said.

Gutovic said buying companies provided faster growth and also allowed Holcim to cross-sell more products.

It would also help to sell a package of construction materials as a system to builders, raising profitability and sales.

The Swiss company also wants to play a role in the expected consolidation of the European construction materials industry in the next few years as smaller players struggle to fund sustainability investments.

The CEO said Holcim even has the potential for multi-billion Swiss franc deal in the next few years up to 2030, given total capital deployment capacity of up to 22 billion Swiss francs ($27.71 billion). This includes capital expenditure, smaller deals and "strategic" or "transformational" acquisitions.

But the company is not looking to enter new regions. It has also been pruning some smaller assets, Gutovic said, with divestments in Jordan and Lebanon recently completed.

Holcim's shares were up about 1.3% on Thursday.

($1 = 0.7940 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Revill
Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jane Merriman)

((John.Revill@thomsonreuters.com; +41 41 528 36 37; Reuters Messaging: john.revill.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))