Displaying items by tag: Acquisition

Ukraine: A court has reportedly invalidated the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU)’s competition clearance for CRH Ukraine's acquisition of Buzzi subsidiary Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine, completed in October 2024. Interfax-Ukraine News has reported that the court found that the clearance, granted in September 2024, was based on insufficient ‘clarification and evidence’ of details on the Ukrainian ready-to-use mortar mixes market situation.

The court allegedly also ruled that the Netherlands-based subsidiary of Ireland-based CRH had yet to meet certain commitments upon which the AMCU’s approval was conditional. Following the acquisition of Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine, it was required to appoint executive, directorial or supervisory personnel to the company who did not already hold positions in CRH Ukraine-controlled entities. CRH clarified that it in fact appointed Mariusz Tomasz Bogacz on 11 October 2024, after his powers as a member of the supervisory board of Podilsky Cement had already been terminated, on 8 October 2024.

Building materials and property development company Kovalska Group mounted the successful legal challenge. The Kyiv Post newspaper has reported that the Kyiv-based company controls over 50% of the concrete market in Kyiv Oblast.

Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine’s assets comprise two integrated cement plants, cement terminals and ready-mix concrete plants in Kyiv, Odessa and Mykolaiv. They entered Italy-based Buzzi’s control following the group’s progressive acquisition of Germany-based Dyckerhoff in 2001 – 2013. CRH and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed a mandate letter for the launch of a joint acquisition of the business in December 2023. The value of the deal was reportedly €100m.

The latest decision is currently under appeal by CRH.

This story was modified on 22 April 2025 to correct the inaccurate claim that the latest court ruling 'blocked' or ‘overturned' the completed acquisition and to add CRH's clarification regarding the effective appointment of Mariusz Tomasz Bogacz.

India: The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has approved Vadraj Cement’s acquisition by Nirma Group-owned cement producer Nuvoco Vistas. Gujarat-based Vadraj Cement, formerly owned by ABG Shipyard, has admitted liabilities of US$1.1bn, while Nuvoco Vistas proposes to pay US$209m to acquire the company through the bankruptcy process.

Vadraj Cement operates grinding units in Surat, with a total capacity of 6Mt/yr, and a clinker plant of 3.5Mt/yr in Kutch, which mostly supplies the grinding plants. All assets are located in the state of Gujarat. The acquisition will increase Nuvoco Vistas’ cement capacity to around 31Mt/yr, making it the fifth-largest cement producer in India by installed capacity.

Nuvoco Vistas won an auction for the business against other bidders, including JK Cement, JSW Cement, KIFS, RKG Fund and Orissa Metaliks.

India: The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has approved Nuvoco Vistas’ US$209m acquisition of Vadraj Cement. The deal will raise Nuvoco’s installed capacity by over 20% to around 31Mt/yr. It will be executed through wholly-owned subsidiary Vanya Corporation, which will be merged with Vadraj Cement as part of the deal.

Nuvoco Vistas will invest a further US$139m over 15 to 18 months to revive Vadraj Cement’s operations, which have reportedly been stalled for ‘nearly seven years’, and begin production by the end of 2026. Vadraj Cement’s assets include a 3.5Mt/yr clinker unit in Kutch and a 6Mt/yr grinding unit in Surat, Gujarat.

US: Heidelberg Materials North America announced that it has completed the acquisition of Giant Cement Holding (GCHI) and its subsidiaries Giant Cement Company, Dragon Products Company and Giant Resource Recovery from the Fortaleza, Uniland and Trituradora groups.

The deal includes a cement plant in Harleyville, South Carolina, four associated distribution terminals, and cement and slag distribution terminals in Newington, New Hampshire and Thomaston, Maine. It also includes Giant Resource Recovery, an alternative fuel recycling business in the eastern US.

President and CEO Chris Ward said “We are pleased to complete the acquisition of the GCHI assets and further strengthen our presence in the important Southeastern US and New England markets. We welcome the approximately 400 employees and the GCHI customers to Heidelberg Materials and look forward to the opportunities ahead.”

Tunisia: Wan Li, the Chinese Ambassador to Tunisia, has revealed that a ‘Chinese company specialising in the cement sector’ is preparing to acquire a cement plant close to the capital city Tunis. The value of the transaction is reported to be more than US$100m. If completed, it would be the first Chinese investment in Tunisia in the 2020s.

Li said "We are confident that this state-of-the-art company will introduce modern techniques and upgrade the plant's equipment, which will have a positive impact on the environment." He also assured that this acquisition will improve the productivity and efficiency of the cement plant.

Australia/Europe: The European Commission (EC) has approved a deal that will see Heidelberg Materials and Holcim acquire joint control of Australian business BGC Cementitious via their joint venture Cement Australia. BGC Cementitious, the cementitious division of the Buckeridge Group of Companies, is active in the cement, concrete, quarrying, asphalt and transportation sectors. The EC concluded that the planned deal would not hurt competition given the limited impact on the European Economic Area. The transaction includes, among others, the Kwinana Cement plant in Western Australia. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

India: The Competition Commission of India has approved Ambuja Cements’ acquisition of Orient Cement, months after the Adani Group company announced the US$451m deal, according to The Economic Times.

Ambuja Cements first revealed plans to acquire Orient Cement in October 2024, intensifying its competition with rival UltraTech Cement.

The Indian cement sector has seen increased competition recently, with both UltraTech and Adani Group companies acquiring smaller firms to expand market share. Analysts had questioned whether the acquisition would secure regulatory approval due to industry oversupply concerns.

India: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the demerger and transfer of Vinay Cement’s cement and mining operations to Dalmia Cement (North East), both subsidiaries of Dalmia Bharat. The order comes into effect on 31 March 2025. Dalmia Bharat will not issue shares under the arrangement. Both subsidiaries will continue operating under the company following the approval.

India: UltraTech Cement's board has approved the separation of Kesoram Industries' cement business, effective from 1 March 2025. Under this plan, Kesoram Industries cement business will join UltraTech Cement.

The producer will issue one equity share of US$0.11 for every 52 Kesoram Industries shares. The merger will increase UltraTech Cement's production capacity by 7Mt/yr. The companies' boards first approved the merger on 30 November 2023, with the demerger previously scheduled for November 2024.

Alpacem said this week that it had completed its acquisition of the Fanna cement plant near Pordenone. The 0.66Mt/yr integrated plant and a number of ready-mixed concrete plants became part of the Austria-headquartered group at the start of February 2025. Alpacem now has three integrated plants, with units at Wietersdorf in Austria and Anhovo in Slovenia, in addition to Fanna.

The deal dates back to mid-2023 when Alpacem said it had signed an agreement with Buzzi. In return Buzzi was set to receive a 25% stake in Alpacem Zement Austria. Prior to this the two companies had a strategic partnership in Austria and Slovenia that dated back to 2014. At the time of the agreement Buzzi held a 25% share in each of two Alpacem subsidiaries: Salonit Anhovo in Slovenia; and W&P Cementi in Italy. The Fanna plant was originally owned by Cementizillo before it was bought by Buzzi in 2018.

Also this week, Federbeton warned that the high cost of gas would add €80m/yr to the cost of cement production. Nicola Zampella, General Manager of Federbeton and the cement association AITEC, noted that local energy costs would reduce the competitiveness of producers against imports from outside of the European Union (EU). This ties into comments Stefano Gallini, the president of Federbeton, made in December 2024 when he highlighted the growing share of imports from outside the EU.

Federbeton raised the issue in its annual report for 2023, showing that imports rose to a 19% production share in 2023. Italy produced 18.8Mt of and imported 3.6Mt of cement and clinker in 2023. This is its highest level of imports for at least a decade. Over the same period the country’s cement exports, as a share of production, have remained steady at around 10 - 11%. In 2023 Türkiye was the biggest source of imports (25%) followed by Greece (17%), Slovenia (17%), Tunisia (12%) and Algeria (10%).

Graph 1: Cement production, imports and exports in Italy, 2019 - 2023. Source: Federbeton.

It is worth recalling that the cement sector in Italy used to be larger before it started consolidating in the late 2000s. Italcementi was acquired by Germany-based Heidelberg Materials. Operations by Sacci, Cementir and Cemenzillo were all bought out too. Local cement production reached a high of 47.9Mt in 2006 before it stabilised at around 20Mt/yr from 2015 onwards.

In its preliminary results for 2024, out this week too, Buzzi reported that the construction market In Italy probably shrank in 2024 due to a poor residential housing market. However, the cement company managed to keep its local net sales stable by raising prices and focusing on exports. Despite this, it noted a drop in cement and concrete sales volumes at the end of 2024. More data on the construction market in Italy may emerge when Heidelberg Materials releases its 2024 financial results at the end of February 2025.

The backdrop to this has been a rise in gas prices in Europe towards the end of 2024 as the EU ‘emergency’ price cap finished on 31 January 2025. Around the same time the EU is preparing to reveal information on its Clean Industry Deal towards the end of February 2025. Plus, the first active phase of EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is preparing to enter into force from the start of 2026. Each of these issues has implications for the cement sector in Italy as the location associations have been highlighting. One question will be whether the Clean Industry Deal can help producers cope with mounting energy prices. Another will be whether CBAM will change the proportion of imports for countries like Italy or will the sources of the imports simply change. Plenty to consider for the year ahead.