Kenya: ARM Cement reportedly nears deal with foreign investor on stake

Kenyan producer ARM Cement is in the “final lap of concluding investment details with a potential investor,” CEO, Pradeep Paunrana, told Bloomberg in a recent interview.

In December ARM announced it was in talks with a foreign institution that planned to invest as much as US$125m. The company has faced “liquidity challenges” that cast doubt on whether it is able to meet obligations on its commercial-paper programmes, the Capital Markets Authority said on Monday. In January, ARM said the foreign investment would be by way of seven-year convertible preference shares which, on conversion to equity in the company, wouldn’t be expected to reach the threshold requiring a mandatory takeover bid.

ARM has reduced its debts by about KES1.2bn (US$11.8m) in the past three months and is continuing to make payments of KES150m per month, Paunrana said. About half of the company’s loans are dollar-denominated and include advances of US$21m from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank and US$53m from the Africa Finance Corp, he said.