Venezuela to seize Cemex unit in takeover fight

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will take control of cement plants and offices belonging to Mexico's Cemex as of midnight on Monday after failing to reach an agreement in nationalization talks, the government said.

The expropriation is part of a drive by socialist President Hugo Chavez to place key industries under state control.

Officials said they had struck deals to buy majority stakes in the local operations of European cement makers Holcim and Lafarge but said Cemex was asking for too much.

"We calculate the amount they are asking for to be way above its real value," said Vice President Ramon Carrizalez.

Carrizalez said Cemex had asked for $1.3 billion for its Venezuelan operations.

The government said it paid $552 million for an 85 percent stake in Switzerland's Holcim's local unit and $267 million for 89 percent of the shares in France's Lafarge's local unit.

"Lafarge is working to protect as best as it can the interests of its shareholders and of its staff on the ground," a spokeswoman for Lafarge said earlier in the day, declining any further comment.

Reuters was unable to reach a representative for Holcim Venezuela or Cemex.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Enrique Andres Pretel; Additional reporting by Gabriela Lopez in Monterrey, Mexico; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)