ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss building materials maker AFG Arbonia Forster (>> AFG Arbonia-Forster-Holding) on Thursday offered to buy Looser Group (>> Looser Holding AG) in a cash and share deal worth around 415 million Swiss francs ($426 million), betting a tie-up will form a more significant European construction industry supplier.

AFG is offering 5.5 newly issued shares and 23 francs in cash per share of Looser, which is also Swiss based. The offer, already accepted by investors holding 53 percent of the shares, represents an enterprise value of around 511 million francs, it said in a statement.

AFG said the offer reflected a 38 percent premium to Looser's closing share price on Wednesday, when its market capitalisation was 300 million francs. Looser's board unanimously accepted the offer, AFG said.

($1 = 0.9738 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields)

Stocks treated in this article : Looser Holding AG, AFG Arbonia-Forster-Holding