September 2024
Ricardo Lima at the helm of Intercement 04 August 2015
Brazil: COO of Intercement Ricardo Lima has been appointed as company president. He replaces Jose Edison Franco. Lima and Franco have made a strategic company plan, which includes a US$250m investment in a new cement plant in Mozambique.
Gulf Cement profits fall by 29.3% in the first half of 2015 03 August 2015
UAE: Gulf Cement Company has reported a 29.3% profit drop to US$48.4m in the first half of 2015 compared to US$12m in the same period of 2014. Profits grew to US$4.29m in the first half of 2015 from US$2.53m in 2014. Gulf Cement had previously reported profits of US$4.12m in the first quarter of 2015 compared to US$14.4m in the same period of 2014.
High Court overturns rulings against CRH in Goode case 03 August 2015
Ireland: The Supreme Court has overturned rulings made by a High Court judge in proceedings by Goode Concrete against CRH on grounds of alleged objective bias arising from the judge holding some Euro135,000 in CRH shares, according to The Irish Times.
Chief Justice Susan Denham said that, if the judges held shares directly in a company involved in litigation before them, as opposed to shares held in a pension plan or unit fund over which they have no control, they should 'generally' not hear the action. The disputed rulings, all unfavourable to the Goode side, were made between 2010 and 2012 by Justice John Cooke, who has since retired, on pre-trial matters in Goode Concrete's action over alleged uncompetitive practices by CRH. The issues will now be reheard before a different High Court judge.
By a four-to-one majority, the Supreme Court granted Goode's appeals against the rulings after finding that Justice Cooke erred in law in hearing the applications due to reasonable apprehension of objective bias due to his CRH shareholding. Justice Cooke held the shares himself; they were not in a trust or any other type of fund.
Italy: HeidelbergCement rushed to buy control of Italcementi after fears that Nigeria's Dangote Cement also showed interest in the Italian cement maker, according to PM News. It has been reported that Dangote did not make a formal offer for Italcementi.
Carl Franklin, head of investor relations at Dangote, said that the company did not comment on specific rumours, but said that "As a large company we examine all options for growth." HeidelbergCement has not commented on whether it had faced competition from Dangote.
According to unnamed sources, the talks between HeidelbergCement and Italcementi began four months ago.
Italcementi chief executive Carlo Pesenti told local media that the deal was 'bulletproof' and there was no space for counter offers. The only outstanding condition was clearance from antitrust authorities. "If it wasn't for the antitrust approval, the shares would have already changed hands," said an unnamed source.
Having already agreed to acquire a 45% stake of Italcementi, HeidelbergCement plans to obtain as many of the remaining shares as possible in the upcoming mandatory buy-out offer, then squeeze out the remaining shareholders and make Italcementi privately-owned.
Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas has reported that in the first half of 2015, its net sales grew by 11.3% to Euro289m compared to Euro260m in the same period of 2014. Its cement sales grew by 4.1% year-on-year. In the first half of 2015, Cementos Portland Valderrivas reported a Euro39.9m loss compared to Euro31m in the same period of 2014.
Egypt: Alexandria Cement has reported that, in the first half of 2015, its consolidated net sales grew by 3% year-on-year to US$130m. It incurred consolidated pre-tax net loss of US$9.32m compared to US$14.9m in the same period of 2014. Alexandria Cement's standalone pre-tax net loss was US$6.13m, compared to US$31.4m in 2014.
Results of the re-opened LafargeHolcim public exchange offer 03 August 2015
Europe: The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) has published the final results of the re-opened public exchange offer initiated by LafargeHolcim for the shares of Lafarge.
Some 25,901,191 additional Lafarge shares have been tendered. Following the settlement-delivery of the re-opened offer, which is expected to occur on 4 August 2015, LafargeHolcim will hold 278,131,864 Lafarge shares representing 96.41% of the share capital and at least 95.25% of the voting rights of Lafarge. As at least 95% of the share capital and voting rights in Lafarge have been tendered, LafargeHolcim could request the AMF to implement a squeeze-out procedure pursuant to the general regulations of the AMF for all issued and outstanding Lafarge shares not tendered to the public exchange offer. As of yet, no decision by the LafargeHolcim board of directors of LafargeHolcim has been taken in this regard.
CRH completes LafargeHolcim acquisition 03 August 2015
Ireland: On 2 February 2015, CRH announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire certain assets from Lafarge and Holcim for Euro6.5bn. The deal has now been completed, with the exception of the Philippines, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2015.
"Today we extend a warm welcome to 15,000 new colleagues joining CRH. With their expertise and talent on board, combined with the strength of our existing employee base, CRH is a step closer to achieving our aim of becoming the world's leading building materials company. The businesses we are acquiring, which represent an excellent geographic fit with CRH's existing operations, are all strong performers in their respective areas. The integration of these high quality assets, which we have acquired at an attractive valuation and at the right point of the cycle, will strengthen our presence in a number of key markets as well as providing new platforms for strategic growth. The additional scale will help us to improve efficiency, speed up innovation and provide an even better service to our customers," said Albert Manifold, CRH chief executive.
The transaction more than doubles CRH's cement production volumes and will further expand its aggregates and ready-mixed concrete portfolios. The acquired assets consist of more than 685 locations in 11 countries and include:
- The largest cement producer in central Canada; an excellent fit with CRH's existing Americas Materials business;
- Major cement and aggregates operations in western Europe's three largest markets: The UK, France and Germany;
- Leading cement and aggregates companies in the growth regions of central and eastern Europe, creating a strong regional cluster in which CRH becomes the number one heavy-side building materials company;
- Entry positions of scale in two emerging economic regions; Brazil and the Philippines.
With the closure, Tarmac and Blue Circle come together to form Tarmac, under the new ownership of CRH, according to Agg-Net. The company's new branding combines the heritage and innovation associated with the Tarmac name and the unique identity of the Blue Circle logo. The newly combined business is now the market leader in aggregates, asphalt, contracting services, lime and powders and is a leading player nationwide in cement, concrete and other building products.
"This is an exciting evolution for our business. With our new owner CRH in place to support the ongoing development and delivery of our strategic vision, we're in an exceptionally strong position to deliver our growth ambitions and continue creating value for our customers, our shareholders and our employees," said Tarmac's CEO, Cyrille Ragoucy, said. Tarmac has confirmed that there will be no change to its relationships with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.
India: Ultratech Cement has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Rajasthan State Industrial Development & Investment Corporation to set up a US$312m, 3Mt/yr capacity cement plant in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. The plant will be set up on around 10.1km2 of land, according to the Indian Cement Review.
Mozambique: Ambrian has announced that its Beira cement plant in Mozambique was completed this week, but that delays and cost overruns mean that the plant will cost an extra US$3m. The delays, which were due to issues with contractors, the availability of qualified staff and regulatory response times, increased the plant cost from US$42.5m to US$45.5m. Testing of the electricity substation will now start at the site and a timetable will be agreed to connect the substation to the main grid, which is expected to happen in early August 2015.