Lucky Cement plans Congo plant
Pakistan’s Lucky Cement plans to form a joint venture with Groupe Rawji of Democratic Republic of Congo to build a 1Mta plant in the African nation.
The factory will be completed in about three years after construction begins in the next 3-5 months, Abid Muhammad Ganatra, director of finance at Lucky Cement, said in an interview with Reuters.
Lucky Cement will pay US$40m for a 50 per cent stake in the project, it said in a statement to the Karachi Stock Exchange on Aug. 1. As much as 54 per cent of the US$175m cost for the factory will be raised through debt from multilateral institutions, according to the company.
Groupe Rawji is in talks with Lucky Cement to set up the factory, Pravin Sawant, the group’s chief financial officer, said.
Lucky Cement is planning the factory in Congo as the nation seeks to rebuild infrastructure destroyed in more than a decade of war that started in the mid-1990s. HeidelbergCement last year agreed to buy a majority stake in three cement plants that account for about two-thirds of the country’s output.
Published under Cement News
