LafargeHolcim CEO resigns over Syria scandal

Eric Olsen, CEO of the Swiss-French giant LafargeHolcim, has stepped down following an internal investigation into one of the company’s manufacturing plants in Syria. In 2013 and 2014, one of world's largest cement company allegedly paid armed groups protection money to keep its Jalabiya plant open while the country’s civil war intensified.

“While I was absolutely not involved in, nor even aware of, any wrongdoing I believe my departure will contribute to bringing back serenity to a company that has been exposed for months on this case,” Olsen said on Monday, who will leave on July 15, two years after becoming chief executive and taking responsibility for implementing the €41bn merger between the French company Lafarge and its Swiss rival Holcim in 2015.

In June 2016, Le Monde claimed in an investigation that Lafarge, which later merged with Holcim, paid taxes to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in 2013-2014 to continue operations in northern Syria.

In March, Lafarge admitted it provided funds to “certain armed groups” and “sanctioned parties” in Syria. The company said such activities were “unacceptable.”

The firm avoided naming the armed groups, admitting that “the local company provided funds to third parties to work out arrangements with a number of these armed groups, including sanctioned parties, in order to maintain operations and ensure safe passage of employees and supplies to and from the plant.”

“Eric Olsen is a leader who brought together two companies to create one genuinely global champion. We are very grateful to him for his efforts”, said Beat Hess, Board Chairman at LafargeHolcim.

In November, two human rights groups said they had filed a legal complaint in Paris against Lafarge, saying the company’s activity in Syria may have made it complicit in financing Islamic State and war crimes.