Siberian Cement postpones Turkish purchase
Siberian Cement has postponed plans to purchase assets in Turkey. The purchase may not go ahead at all.
September 25, 2008 was supposed to be the closing date for a deal in which Siberian Cement was to buy the Turkish division of Italcementi Group - Set Group (four cement plants, a network of concrete plants, and a terminal at the port of Ambarli in Istanbul; projected capacity 5Mt, market share in Turkey over 7%). But Italcementi announced that closing the deal has been postponed until October 20 - not giving any reasons.
Oleg Sharykin, chief stakeholder in Siberian Cement, said: "There is the question of whether it is rational to buy any particular asset before the final decision regarding the purchase of cement plants has been made." Another spokesman for Siberian Cement added that the deal is unlikely to go ahead, because the enterprises in question have a low profit margin.
In April, Italcementi announced the forthcoming sale of its Turkish assets. Siberian Cement President Andrei Muraviev spoke of plans to import cement from Turkey to Russia.
The deal was estimated to be worth EUR600m: EUR400m in the form of money, and the remainder as a 5% stake in Siberian Cement (at $180 per share) Published under Cement News
