GCC looking for cash

GCC looking for cash
27 June 2006


On the back of a rather aggressive foray into the United States with four acquisitions in the past six months, Mexican company Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) entered the private market last week via agent Barclays, seeking US$125m of senior notes , sources said.  The agent intends to place the notes in a 10-year final/9-year average life maturity, sources said. No price talk was heard at press time. 
 
Last month, GCC acquired Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Mid-Continent Concrete Company and Alliance Transportation Inc., or MidCo, for US$271m. The company is the largest producer of ready-mix concrete in northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas and is expected to generate sales of US$138m this year, according to GCC. 
 
"The acquisition of Mid-Continent significantly expands GCC’s footprint in the US," Manuel Milan, chief executive officer of GCC, said in statement.
 
Also last month, the company began constructing a US$220m cement plant outside of Pueblo, Colo., and in January, GCC acquired four ready-mix concrete companies in eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota for US$31.2m. The companies, Consolidated Ready Mix Inc., Henrich & Sons, Inc., Huron Steel Structures, Inc., and B&B Concrete, Inc., will operate collectively as "Consolidated Ready Mix, Inc."
 
GCC also expanded into South America, most recently with the purchase of a 47 per cent stake in Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento, S.A., the largest cement company in Bolivia. 
 
Cemex, one of the world’s largest cement manufacturing companies owns 49 per cent of GCC, the third largest cement company in Mexico, which was founded on 1941. 
 
GCC represents the second cement company that Barclays has brought to the private market recently. In April, the agent structured a US$130m transaction for Cementos Portland Valderrivas, the cement subsidiary of Spanish construction group Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC). 
Published under Cement News