Displaying items by tag: Bamburi
Kenya: Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) deputy governor Sheila M’Mbijiwe is seeking re-election to the board of LafargeHolcim majority-owned Bamburi Cement. A notice sent to shareholders stated that the CBK senior executive will be seeking a new mandate when the company holds its 65th annual general meeting on 2 June 2016 in Mombasa. The 58-year-old senior CBK executive, who also sits on the regulator’s Monetary Policy Committee, was set to retire by rotation but is seeking to retain the seat.
Others seeking re-election are Daniel Patterson and D Drouet who are also retiring by rotation but are eligible to seek to be elected again.
Bamburi Cement profit rises by 46% to US$83.5m in 2015
14 March 2016Kenya: Bamburi Cement’s pretax profit has risen by 46% year-on-year to US$83.5m in 2015, according to Reuters. Its turnover rose by 9% to US$386m. The rise in profit was attributed to higher sales, investment income and currency gains.
"Turnover increased... driven by increased demand in the key domestic markets in Kenya and Uganda resulting mainly from growth in large infrastructure projects and contractor segments, despite some slow down in domestic market in the last quarter," said Bamburi in a statement.
Bamburi Cement profit up 94% in first half
28 August 2015Kenya: Bamburi Cement has reported a 94% jump in its pre-tax profit for the first half of 2015 to US$43m compared to the first half of 2014. Turnover grew to US$186m from US$166m, as governments and others continued to invest in infrastructure projects.
The company attributed the strong performance to growth in demand in its two main markets of Uganda and Kenya, cost cutting and gains in its US-Dollar-based liquid assets due to a steep weakening of the Ugandan and Kenyan currencies. Exports to other African markets were also strong.
"The outlook for the rest of 2015 is stable, with projected and continued positive growth in all regional East African economies," said Bamburi in a statement.
Cement signals – import row in Kenya
08 July 2015Kenyan cement producers kicked off this week about Chinese cement imports for the Standard Gauge Railway Project in Kenya. Local producers, including ARM Cement and Lafarge, have asked the Kenya Railways Corporation to explain why the Chinese-backed project is importing cement. Project builders the China Rail & Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has imported 7000t of cement so far in 2015 according to Kenya Ports Authority data.
Project completion is planned for 2017 with a requirement of 1Mt of cement. If CRBC carried on this rate then, roughly, the project might only use 42,000t of imported cement if the import rate holds. This is less than 5% of the estimated requirement. However, cement imports increases into Kenya have stayed steady since 2012. Imports rose by 2000t from 2013 to 2014. CRBC's imports will stick out significantly in 2015.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data places Kenyan cement production at 5.8Mt in 2014, an increase of 16.3% from 5.1Mt in 2013. Production growth has been steadily building since the late 1990s with, more recently, a dip in the rate of growth in 2011 that has been 'corrected' as the growth has returned. Consumption has risen by 21.8% year-on-year to 5.2Mt in 2014 with imports also rising and exports dropping.
Imports for the railway project are duty free as ARM Cement Chief Executive Officer Pradeep Paunrana helpfully explained to Bloomberg. Producers have also recently upgraded their plants to specifically supply 52.5 grade cement to the project. Given this, it is unsurprising that local Kenyan producers, including ARM Cement and Lafarge, are complaining about this situation, especially given the increasingly pugnacious African response to foreign imports led by Dangote and companies in South Africa. Both ARM and Lafarge hold integrated plants and grinding plants in Nairobi and Mombasa. This is the route of the new railway line.
The backdrop to this is that the Chinese cement industry is struggling at home as it adjusts to lower construction rates and reduced cement production growth. Profits made by the Chinese cement industry fell by 67.6% year-on-year to US$521m for the first quarter of 2015, according to National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) statistics. At the same time the Shanghai Composite, China's principal stock market, has seen the value of its shares fall by 30% since June.
Although it is unclear where the cement imports in this particular row are coming from, informal or formal business links between large state controlled corporations such as a China's major cement producers will always be questioned by competitors outside of China for both genuine issues of competitiveness and simple attempts to claw more profit. If the Chinese cement producers are sufficiently spooked or they really start to lose money then what is to stop it asking a sister company building a large infrastructure project abroad to offer it some help? Or it might consider asking the Chinese bank providing 90% of the financing towards the US$3.8bn infrastructure project to force the Kenyan government to offer more concessions to foreign firms. Meanwhile one counter argument goes that Kenya has a growing construction market with a giant infrastructure project that may unlock the region's long-simmering low cement consumption per capita boom. The Kenyan government may face some difficult decisions ahead.
Bamburi Cement to plant trees at Kenya’s coast
30 June 2015Kenya: According to The Star (Kenya), a reforestation drive is targeting the counties of Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale to achieve the internationally-recommended 10% forest cover.
Bamburi Cement has embarked on a campaign that will see 1.5 million trees planted at the coast by May 2016. It has provided 500,000 tree seedlings to each of the three county governments to do so. "We need to create a culture where the re-planting of trees is practised to avoid environmental degradation," said plant manager Peter Gibendi. He added that Kenya's coastal forests, though fragmented and small, are of critical important to the country.
Bamburi subsidiary gets US$5m loan for operations
08 January 2015Kenya: Seruji Limited, a distribution subsidiary of Bamburi Cement, has borrowed US$5m from TriLinc Global to finance its activities at a time when competition in the industry has reached new heights.
"TriLinc funded a US$5m trade finance transaction at a fixed interest rate of 14.75% to a Kenyan cement distributor engaged in the production and distribution of cement," said TriLinc. "The transaction, set to mature on 17 March 2015, is supported by inventory, receivables and other liquid assets." TriLinc added that Seruji met one of its investment criteria of being a small or medium enterprise (SME) in its growth stage.
"Founded in 2008, the borrower is a growing Kenyan cement distributor that utilises cutting-edge energy-efficient and eco-friendly cement grinding technology to improve sustainability," said TriLinc, which has also invested in Zambian, Namibian and South African SMEs. Kenyan companies are increasingly using foreign-based lenders with the capacity to lend larger amounts and at a lower cost than local financiers.
Bamburi’s profit down by 28% in first half of 2014
08 August 2014Kenya: The profit of Lafarge-controlled Bamburi Cement slumped by 28% to US$26.2m in the first half of 2014, as the company outlined plans to profit from Kenya's ambitious infrastructure spending plans. It said that its profit took a hit due to the higher cost of both power and imported clinker. However, its revenue increased to US$197m from US$180m in the first half of 2013.
Bamburi is the biggest cement maker in east Africa's largest economy, where a construction boom driven by infrastructure projects and real estate has helped boost demand for cement. "We are optimistic that the business environment will progressively improve in the second half of the year," said the firm.
In June 2014 the Kenyan government raised US$2bn through a debut Eurobond and said most of the proceeds would be used to finance infrastructure projects. Bamburi said it expects Kenya's planned infrastructure projects, including roads, railways and a new Indian Ocean port in Lamu, to improve sales.
Holcim assumes control of Bamburi Cement
11 July 2014Kenya: Holcim is set to acquire effective control of Kenya's Bamburi Cement Company Ltd as part of the planned merger between Holcim and Lafarge. Lafarge is Bamburi's parent company. Bamburi said that the proposed combination would not effect any changes to the ownership of Bamburi and that the local outfit would remain listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
"The parties do not wish to see any change to the status of Bamburi as one of Kenya's leading industrial companies listed on the NSE," said Holcim. Holcim added that maintenance of the listing on the NSE and the wide-scale investment from the Kenyan public in Bamburi's shares is a key ingredient to the success of Bamburi.
Lafarge owns 58.6% of Bamburi's total issued share capital through two subsidiaries: Fincem Holding Ltd (29.3%) and Kencem Ltd (29.3%). Kenyan institutions and individuals own an estimated 32.17% of Bamburi shares. Currently Holcim does not own any shares directly or indirectly.
Kenya/Uganda: Bamburi Cement intends to appoint Bruno Pescheux, the country CEO for Syria, as the CEO of Bamburi Kenya and Daniel Pettersson, the general manager of Hima Cement, as the CEO of Bamburi Uganda. At present the Lafarge subsidiary is run as one unit. The Kenyan business has three subsidiaries - Bamburi Cement, Bamburi Special Products and Lafarge Eco Systems while the Ugandan unit is managed as Hima Cement.
"With a view to improving focus on our markets it has been decided that, starting on 21 July 2014, the Kenya-Uganda cluster will be managed as two separate country organisations each with a country CEO and executive team," said outgoing Bamburi chief executive Hussein Mansi in a staff memo. Pescheux and Pettersson will report to Tom Farrell, group executive vice president.
Bamburi CEO Hussein Mansi to leave in July 2014
18 June 2014Kenya: Bamburi Cement chief executive Hussein Mansi is set to leave in July 2014. Mansi is relocating to Lafarge Egypt, ending his five-and-a-half year tenure overseeing Bamburi's operations in Kenya and Uganda. In an internal memo sent to staff, Mansi said he will be replaced by Bruno Pescheux, currently the chief executive of Lafarge Cement Syria.
"After five very interesting years leading the Kenya – Uganda business I have accepted a new challenge with Lafarge in Egypt and will be doing so by the end of July 2014," said Mansi.
Mansi, aged 47, holds a post-graduate certificate of Business Administration from the University of Leicester and a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Cairo. He began his career in 1991 at Saudi Building Systems as a design engineer and later as the sales manager before joining Orascom Construction Industries as works director in charge of sales and marketing.
Mansi joined Bamburi Cement in January 2009 from Algerian Cement Company (ACC), wholly owned by Orascom, where he was the commercial director for five years until December 2008. Orascom was acquired by Lafarge in 2007 leading to Mansi's promotion to head the French multinational's business in East Africa.