Holcim pays US$3.8m for 50% stake in ecoWise unit, Singapore
Waste management company ecoWise Holdings has formed a joint venture with Holcim (Singapore).
Holcim Singapore will pay US$3.8m for a 50 per cent stake in ecoWise Materials, which is wholly owned by ecoWise Holdings.
ecoWise will receive a one-off gain from the cash injection, which will help it to maintain and operate a plant to recycle and process used copper slag.
Holcim will take the ’exclusive off-take’ of ecoWise’s processed copper slag, which is used in ready-mix concrete as an alternative to sand, said ecoWise chairman and chief executive Lee Thiam Seng.
ecoWise is a collector of used copper slag from shipyards and docks in Singapore.
Mr Lee said the joint venture company, to be renamed Geocycle Singapore, will also ’set up a research and development facility to develop new sustainable sources of alternative fuels and raw materials’ used to manufacture cement and other building materials.
Any new alternative fuels and raw materials that result from the R&D initiative will also be taken up by Holcim.
Holcim, listed on the Swiss Exchange, recorded sales of more than SwFr23bn (S$30.1bn) in 2006.
It holds majority and minority interests in companies in more than 70 countries worldwide, and was recognised as ’the leader in the industry’ in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2006. Published under Cement News
