Italcementi to buy stake in Egypt cement firm

Egypt’s Arab-Suez Company for Engineering (ASEC) said on Sunday it had initialled a deal for Italy’s biggest cement firm Italcementi to buy its 68 per cent stake in ASEC Cement Co.

Italcementi would offer to buy the stake and the remaining 32 per cent of ASEC Cement Co. through the stock exchange within two months of the deal’s initialling last Wednesday, ASEC Chief Financial Officer Ahmed Khalifa told Reuters.

"They want to acquire 100 percent," he said. "The average price per share will be from 29 to 31 Egyptian pounds per share," he said.

ASEC Cement shares closed on Thursday at 27.32 pounds. The deal valued ASEC Cement’s assets at 4.6bn pounds, Khalifa said, adding Italcementi was due to complete due diligence within 45 days.

Italcementi said in March it had raised its stake in Egypt’s Suez Cement to 54.2 per cent through its Ciments Francais unit.

The Italian firm said then it was pursuing a strategy of geographical diversification aimed at raising capacity in emerging countries with growth potential.

Asec Cement Co. made a net profit of 96.18m Egyptian pounds in the 2005 first quarter, up from 0.71m pounds a year earlier.