Turkey’s Oyak Cement on the acquisition trail
Oyak Cement Group, which controls five publicly traded cement companies in Turkey, is looking into opportunities to buy cement plants in nearby countries, said Celalettin Caglar, head of Oyak’s cement and automobile group.
The group, owned by Turkey’s army pension fund Oyak, is also examining offers from potential foreign buyers for its assets, Caglar said in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg today.
Turkish cement companies’ domestic sales may rise as much as eight per cent to 54Mt this year, Adnan Ignebekcili, head of the country’s industry association known as TCMB, said in an interview on January 6. Turkey produced 66Mt of cement in 2010, with sales reaching US$4.5bn, including US$1bn of exports, Ignebekcili said.
“We have been receiving offers from buyers for a long time,” Caglar said. “We are talking with everybody and assessing every offer. We are also looking into some plants in countries near Turkey.”
Oyak, which owns Aslan Cimento AS, Bolu Cimento Sanayii AS, Unye Cimento Sanayii & Ticaret AS, Mardin Cimento Sanayii & Ticaret AS and Adana Cimento Sanayii TAS, plans to increase cement sales volume by at least five per cent in 2011, matching its estimate for the industry’s growth, Caglar said.
Sales volume at the group’s cement makers was 10Mt in 2010 with revenue of TRL1bn (US$633m) and a capacity utilisation of more than 90 per cent, Caglar said.
Cement exports from the group’s companies will be about 20 per cent of the total sales volume in 2011, down from a quarter in 2010, Caglar said. Turkey’s total cement exports may exceed 15Mt in 2011, almost unchanged from 2010, he said. (Edited report from Bloomberg)
Published under Cement News
