Cement News tagged: Corporate
Vicat to take full control of Indian joint venture
Vicat is to take 100 per cent control of Vicat Sagar Cements after agreeing to buy out Sagar Cements from the joint venture company. An agreement has been reached whereby Sagar Cements will sell its entire 47 per cent stake in the collaboration for INR66.68 per share (US$1.1). The company said it would use a part of the money to purchase some capital equipment for its Matampally plant, whil...
Saudi: Qassim’s 2Q14 net profit slips, sales down 10%
Qassim Cement posted a 1.5 per cent decline in net profit for the second quarter of 2014 to SAR161.1m (US$43m). Sales volumes dropped 10 per cent YoY during the three months to the end of June to 1.07Mt on the back of sluggish construction sector activity. Operating profits came in at SAR163.6m. Analysts at Al Rahji Capital have stated that Qassim’s high utilisation rates and its inability...
Cementos Portland renegotiates debt agreement
Spain's Cementos Portland has renegotiated its EUR1.114bn debt with its bank, according to the FCC subsidiary. It is the company's second refinancing in two years after the last agreement in July 2012. In the latest agreement, the company will postpone the payment of EUR50m of liabilities which expired on 30 June to 30 September. The payment follows the 2012 agreement to refinance a syndica...
Elementia in talks for Lafarge JV stake, Mexico
Elementia SA, the Mexican cement maker backed by Carlos Slim and Antonio del Valle, is in talks to buy out partner Lafarge SA in their Mexican joint venture, Bloomberg reported Monday citing people with knowledge of the matter. Elementia reportedly has the right to buy Lafarge's 47 per cent stake under an option in the original terms of the Mexico partnership. Lafarge's move to sell the stake...
European Commission objects to Spanish deal
The European Commission, the antitrust regulator in Europe, has objected to plans by Cemex to acquire Spanish units held by Holcim. In August last year the two cement majors reached an agreement to conduct a series of transactions to swap and combine assets in parts of Europe with the aim of improving synergies and boosting operating profit. However, a source told Reuters last week ...
Lafarge expansion to upset Dangote Cement plans?
Lafarge Wapco’s shareholders have approved the merger between the Nigerian unit of French cement maker Lafarge, Lafarge Wapco, and its wholly-owned South African subsidiary. The consolidation of the South African unit with Nigeria’s Lafarge Wapco, Lafarge says, will help accelerate its growth on the African continent and expand its product offering in South Africa and across the region. The ...
Yamama Cement sees June deliveries decline
Yamama Cement's June domestic deliveries reached 484,000t, a 5.5 per cent decline MoM and a 17.7 per cent YoY fall, according to NBK Capital. However, this figure was in line with NBK Capital's 1.5Mt estimate of the 2Q14 sales volume. Yamama Cement’s primary area of activity in Riyadh is still experiencing a slowdown in construction activity, on the back of the labour correction campaigns that...
Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement improves 1H14 sales
Kazakh cement producer Steppe Cement Ltd reported cement sales of 709,459t for KZT9125m (US$49.7m) in 1H14 which compares with 564,440t of cement for KZT8165m in the 1H13. This represents a YoY increase of 26 per cent in volume terms and 12 per cent in value terms. The rise signals a shift from the company's 2013 strategy of pursuing higher selling prices to this year's plans to strive for ...
Mexico: Cementos Fortaleza inaugurates new plant
Cementos Fortaleza’s new 1Mta greenfield plant in Santiago de Anaya, Hidalgo, Mexico, has been inaugurated. The official launch took place in the presence of Elementia president, Francisco Del Valle Perochena, along with Mexico’s Minister of the Economy, Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, and Hidalgo’s state governor, Franciso Olvera. “After 70 years a new cement company is born in the country...
Italcementi raises EUR500m capital
Italian cement maker Italcementi fully completed a capital increase worth EUR500m on Monday. Investors subscribed to 103.6m new shares within an issue approved by the board of directors on 6 March. During the offer period, investors exercised rights for the subscription of 99.42 per cent of the new shares for EUR497m. Under a subscription agreement, Italmobiliare spent EUR225.1m on the transa...
Holcim and Lafarge announce proposed asset disposals
Two months after the announcement of their planned merger, Lafarge and Holcim have revealed the list of proposed divestments. In Europe the merged entity aims to have “a significant and balanced industrial base in Europe – around 20 per cent of its revenues – within its overall global footprint, enabling it to take advantage of the European economic recovery,” according to a joint statement...
Philippines: Lafarge and Holcim start talks
Lafarge Republic Inc (LRI) and Holcim Philippines Inc have begun plans for a local merger. Both Boards of Directors gave the green light "to explore, study and consider the combination" of their businesses "in order to avail... of the resulting synergies and opportunities... and in the course of such study, determine optimal structures to implement the combination". Discussions opened in a s...
Italcementi reaches threshold for squeeze-out of Ciments Français
Italcementi said on Thursday it had bought more than 95 percent of share capital of Ciments Français, reaching the threshold for the squeeze-out of minorities at its French unit. Italcementi’s buyout bid for Ciments Français, which commenced on 13 June, is worth EUR79.50 (USS108.60) a share, ex dividend. The buy-out of minorities in Ciments Fran ç ais is part of the Italian cement major's...
Credit Suisse sells holdings in Anhui Conch Cement
Credit Suisse Group AG sold 805,174 shares in Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltd worth HK$ 21.95m (US$2.8m) on 23 June 2014, sources reported, citing information from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. After the sale, the Switzerland financial institution still holds 103.10m shares in the Anhui Province-based cement producer, accounting for a 7.93 per cent stake. Earlier this week, Anhui Conch issued a po...
Martin Marietta completes TXI acquisition
Martin Marietta Inc said it has completed its acquisition of Texas Industries Inc (TXI). As a result, the common stock of TXI is no longer listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In a statement, Ward Nye, Martin Marietta's CEO, said the merger gives his company an "expanded platform for growth," particularly in Texas and California. "I look forward to continuing to work closely...
Anhui Conch issues positive profit alert, China
Yesterday, Anhui Conch said it expects first-half net profit up about 90 per cent YoY compared to CNY3.06bn (US$492.75m) a year earlier. The advance is being attributed to increased product sales and prices. Dow Jones cited a report by Barclays which says higher sales and lower coal prices are responsible. "We expect the share price to react positively" Thursday but the stock may "then fall...