Ready Mix USA is exercising its put option, requiring Cemex to acquire its share in the two joint ventures formed in the south-eastern parts of the USA in 2005.
Following the sale of 12 active quarries and certain other assets to SPO Partners & Co., a San Francisco-based investment vehicle, for US$420m in the early part of this year, the value of the remaining share held by Ready Mix USA in the two joint ventures is estimated at about US$360m.
These assets consists of two cement plants in Alabama and Georgia with a combined annual capacity of 1.7Mt, 12 cement terminals, ten sand and gravel pits, 149 batching plants and 20 block plants in the south-eastern USA. At that stage, Cemex will also have to consolidate US$17m of debt held by the downstream joint venture, the cement joint venture already being fully consolidated.
