When Cemex’s $14.2bn offer for Rinker, the Australian building materials company, was accepted by Rinker’s board last month, it paved the way for what promises to be the biggest acquisition carried out by a Mexican company abroad.

The planned purchase would place Cemex, the cement manufacturer and the world’s largest producer of ready-mix, at the forefront of the global building supplies industry and increase the company’s annual sales 32 per cent to $24bn.