Eurocement, Russia’s biggest integrated building materials group, emerged on Monday as the mystery buyer of shares in Holcim, the world’s second-biggest cement group, but said it was not planning a takeover.

The Russian group, controlled by Filaret Ilyich Galchev, one of Russia’s richest men, said it held 6.52 per cent of the Swiss company, having bought shares as a long-term investment in a company offering potential to grow and gain value.