Displaying items by tag: Acquisition

Netherlands: Siam Cement Group has acquired new shares in electrochemistry start-up Avantium through its affiliate Senfi Ventures. Reuters has reported that the Thailand-based group now holds a 3% stake in Avantium, through total investments of US$4.82m.

Avantium’s technologies include the Volta system, which produces commercial chemicals using captured CO₂. Avantium previously tested the system at a Titan Cement Group cement plant in Greece.

Philippines: DMCI Holdings has entered into negotiations to acquire Cemex Holdings Philippines, Reuters has reported, citing three sources ‘familiar with the matter.’ The sources expect the value of the transaction to exceed Cemex Holdings Philippines' current market capitalisation of US$375m. One source reportedly valued any future deal at an estimated US$714m.

Chile: UNACEM has gained full ownership of precast concrete company Prefabricados Andinos. The group said that it completed the acquisition of the outstanding 50% stake in the company on 6 February 2024.

Portugal: The Portuguese Competition Authority has approved Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC)’s outright acquisition of Cimpor. Jingshi News has reported that TCC received the approval on 1 February 2024, enabling it to proceed with its acquisition of the outstanding 60% stake in Cimpor.

Rwanda: South Africa-based PPC has completed the sale of its 51% stake in the Rwandan cement producer to Kenya-based Devki Group subsidiary National Cement, for US$42.5m. The divestiture advances PPC's strategic exit of Central and East Africa. As a result, the group's financial position is now cash positive. It had previously reduced its debt by 50% to US$20.3m from US$40.7m between March 2020 and September 2023.

PPC CEO Matias Cardarelli said "I am pleased with the timely completion of the sale of our stake in Cimerwa. The disposal allows us to focus on our core Southern African markets, where we see opportunities to drive improved profitability and secure a more sustainable return on capital."

Ukraine: The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has launched an investigation into Ireland-based CRH's acquisition of certain Central-Eastern European assets of Italy-based Buzzi Unicem. The assets in question include two Ukrainian cement plants. The AMCU will assess the potential impacts of the consolidation on the cement market in Ukraine. The parties concluded the deal in June 2023, and expected to conclude it in September 2024. The AMCU first rejected CRH's application to it in September 2023, but subsequently agreed to reopen its examination of the deal in October 2023.

South Africa: Mining and materials company Afrimat says that further regulatory conditions as part of its ongoing acquisition of Lafarge South Africa have been met. The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy of South Africa has consented in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, the Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank has approved the acquisition in terms of the Exchange Control Regulations and the respective Competition Authorities in Botswana and eSwatini have approved the implementation of the acquisition. Approval by the Competition Commission is still outstanding but it recommended the transaction to the Competition Tribunal in November 2023. However, the Competition Commission highlighted ‘horizontal overlaps’ in the aggregates and ready-mix concrete sectors and recommended that the parties be required to divest assets across the affected sectors.

Afrimat first announced in June 2023 that it had agreed a share purchase agreement with a Holcim Group subsidiary, Caricement, to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of Lafarge South Africa. The proposed acquisition will become unconditional and be implemented once approval by the Competition Tribunal has been obtained.

Saudi Arabia: Qassim Cement Company has informed investors of its intention to acquire Hail Cement Company outright via a submission on the Saudi Exchange. As part of its offer, Qassim Cement Company plans to increase its own share capital by 23%, in order to issue some of it to Hail Cement Company’s shareholders.

India: UltraTech Cement has concluded a deal to acquire a 26% stake in renewable energy provider Amplus Ages. ET Infra News has reported the value of the deal as US$5.91m. The parties expect the deal to complete within 180 days of its execution.

The cement producer, a subsidiary of Aditya Birla, said "The acquisition is for the purposes of meeting the company's green energy needs, optimising energy costs and complying with regulatory requirements for captive power consumption."

India: Adani Group subsidiary ACC has completed its acquisition of the outstanding 55% stake in Asian Concrete and Cements for US$93.2m. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that ACC expects the acquisition to strengthen its market position in North India.

Asian Concrete and Cements owns the 1.3Mt/yr Nalagarh cement plant in Himachal Pradesh and the 1.5Mt/yr Rajpura cement plant in Punjab. The assets raise the installed capacity of ACC to 38.6Mt/yr and that of Adani Group to 77.4Mt/yr. It plans to reach 106Mt/yr in the 2026 financial year, and 140Mt/yr in the 2028 financial year.