Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among four firms to bag roles on cement giants Lafarge and Holcim’s sale of €6.5bn (£4.9bn) worth of assets to Irish building supplies group CRH.

The assets are being sold by Lafarge and Holcim to allay competition concerns as the French and Swiss giants try to gain regulatory approval for their planned merger in the first half of 2015.