Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Linklaters are among a clutch of firms acting on the €32bn (£26.5bn) merger of cement giants Lafarge and Holcim.

The merger between France's Lafarge and Switzerland's Holcim will see the creation of a new company – LafargeHolcim – with presences in 90 countries. The combined company, worth €32bn in combined sales, will be based in Switzerland.

Cleary advised longstanding client Lafarge with a team led by Paris M&A partner Pierre-Yves Chabert. The team also included Washington partner Mark Nelson and Brussels partners Antoine Winckler and Nicholas Levy on antitrust; Paris partner Anne-Sophie Coustel, Washington partner Yaron Reich and London partner Richard Sultman on tax; and Paris partners Andrew Bernstein, Valerie Lemaitre and Jean-Marie Ambrosi respectively on US securities, financing and labour law aspects.

The firm acted alongside M&A partner Rolf Watter at Swiss firm Bar & Karrer.

Fellow Swiss firm Homburger AG acted for Holcim with a team led by managing partner Daniel Daeniker. Linklaters provided advice on French law with a team led by M&A partner Fabrice de La Morandiere, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Brussels-based competition partner Frank Montag advised on antitrust matters.

Cleary is a regular adviser to Lafarge. Recent mandates include acting on a joint venture with mining company Anglo American in 2011, creating UK building materials business Lafarge Tarmac. Chabert led the initial termsheet discussions for Lafarge on the deal.

Last June Lafarge Tarmac handed Nabarro and Freeth Cartwright spots on its first-ever legal panel.