The acquisition-hungry materials group said its initial offer had not met expected valuations on the majority of assets on sale.

The decision deals a serious blow to Tarmac and Lafarge, which must divest of a batch of quarry and ready-mix plant operations to meet competition commission rules to go-ahead with the huge merge of the two companies’ UK businesses.

Breedon stressed it still remained in the bidding for a small number of businesses in the proposed sell-off.

A statement from Breedon said: “Over the past two months Breedon Aggregates has conducted a thorough review of the assets being made available in the disposal packages.

“Earlier this month the group submitted conditional offers to the sellers’ advisers for a number of the assets.

“In the event, the group has been unable to meet the value expectations of the sellers in respect of the majority of assets by number and value and has therefore withdrawn from the bidding process for these assets.
”

It added: “The group remains in discussion regarding the possible acquisition of certain of the other assets and will make a further announcement on this in due course.”