Displaying items by tag: Acquisition

Brazil: Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH), the subsidiary of Mexican cement company Cemex in Central and South America and the Caribbean region, together with its subsidiary Corporacion Cementera Latinoamericana, expect to finalise the sale of Brazilian cement producer Cimento Vencemos Do Amazonas (CVDA) for around US$30m by the end of 2018. On 25 May 2018, the pair agreed to sell all of the shares they own in CVDA to Brazilian cement company Votorantim Cimentos.

US: LafargeHolcim has acquired Metro Mix, LLC, a leading provider of ready-mix concrete in the Denver metropolitan area in Colorado. With Metro Mix, LafargeHolcim reports that it has further strengthened its position in the United States, where it is already present with operations in cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates and asphalt.

Jan Jenisch, CEO of LafargeHolcim, said, “This is our fourth acquisition this year, in line with our Strategy 2022 - 'Building for Growth'. Metro Mix's operations are highly complementary to our existing footprint and will allow us to gain a larger share in a growing market with immediate commercial and operational synergies. I very much welcome all employees of Metro Mix to our company.”
Metro Mix operates two ready-mix concrete plants and reported net sales of around US$30m in 2017.

Ireland: CRH has said that is looking to build up a ‘cash pile’ of Euro7bn. It says it will use the funds for anything from acquisitions to share buybacks. Finance director Senan Murphy said the company was showing the market that it is ‘not just a one-trick pony that just does acquisitions.’ The money will be the cash left over after spending on capital expenditure, interest, tax and other payments.

"There are a number of options where that money can be deployed, and we will deploy it wherever it creates the most value for shareholders," said Murphy. "We can reinvest it in our business, we can invest it in acquisitions, we can continue on with buybacks or we can increase the level of dividends."

The company posted a 1% rise in revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) year-on-year in the first half of 2018. It expects EBITDA in the second half to be ahead of that seen in the second half of 2017.

India: UltraTech Cement has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the acquisition of the cement business of Century Textiles and Industries. The company has given its approval for the share swap deal between the companies.

The transaction will provide UltraTech an opportunity to further strengthen its presence in the east and central markets, extending its footprint in the Western and Southern markets of India.

India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved UltraTech Cement’s acquisition of Century Textiles & Industries. UltraTech Cement said that the CCI had approved the proposed combination under sub-section (1) of section 31 of the Competition Act, 2012. Century Textiles, the cement production subsidiary of BK Birla Group, holds three integrated plants in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra respectively with a combined production capacity of 11.4Mt/yr and a 1Mt/yr grinding plant in West Bengal. The takeover has been arranged via a demerger process whereby Century Textiles’ shareholders will be given shares in UltraTech Cement.

UAE: India’s Shree Cement has completed its acquisition of Union Cement. Shree Cement has purchased a 97.61% in the company. It is the company’s first acquisition outside of India. Union Cement operates a cement plant Ras Al- Khaimah.

Chile: Fuchs Group has purchased a controlling stake in the lubricants business of Comercial Pacific. The agreement will see it hold 65% of the company with Comercial Pacific retaining the remaining 35%. The acquisition focuses in particular on the customer base and workforce. Comercial Pacific is a long-standing Fuchs distributor in Chile in the mining, food, paper and cellulose industries. The company employs 13 people in sales and application engineering.

France/Italy: Chryso has signed an agreement to buy certain assets of Italy’s Ruredil, including its cement additives, concrete admixtures and technical mortars business divisions, but excluding the Rurmec brand. The cost of the acquisition has not been revealed. The transaction is expected to complete over the summer of 2018 subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary conditions precedent.

“The combination of our operating businesses in Italy will provide a wider range of products to our customers, as well as improve our geographic coverage, enabling us to serve a greater number of building companies and cement and concrete manufacturers across Italy and abroad. The businesses will have strong offerings to answer the new technical challenges of the building industry,” said Thierry Bernard, president and chief executive officer of Chryso.

In Italy, Chryso operates as Chryso Italia, which was established in 1997. Its customers in the region include cement manufacturers, concrete producers and building companies. Ruredil is an Italian company, established in the 1950s. It manufactures chemicals and structural reinforcement systems, and owns well-recognised brands in the construction industry such as Ruredil and Levocell.

US: CRH has completed the sale of cement and ready-mix assets to Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) following its acquisition of Ash Grove Cement. Ireland's biggest company sold the Trident cement plant in Montana to GCC for US$107.5m.

The move comes less than a month after CRH received regulatory approval from the US Federal Trade Commission to acquire cement manufacturer Ash Grove Cement for US$3.5bn in a deal first announced in September 2017.

As part of the transaction with GCC, CRH acquired most of the ready-mix plants and transportation assets belonging to GCC in Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas for US$118.5m. GCC will continue to own and operate four ready-mix plants in the Fort Smith, Arkansas area and own an office building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which it will lease to CRH.
The purchase and sale amounts have been paid in full but are subject to final inventory valuation adjustments, which are expected to be completed within 90 days.

India: LafargeHolcim’s subsidiary ACC is in talks to buy Jaiprakash Associates’ remaining cement business. It plans to buy the production capacity of 5.5Mt/yr for US$763m by mid-2018, according to sources quoted by the Economic Times newspaper. Jaiprakash Associates is selling the last parts of its former cement assets to reduce its debts.

The proposed deal includes plants in central India with clinker production capacity of 4.4Mt/yr and a cement grinding capacity of about 3.3Mt/yr, the company's 74% stake in Bhilai Jaypee Cement, a joint venture with Steel Authority of India, and the Nigrie grinding plant.

Jaiprakash Associates previously agreed to sell three cement plants to Orient Cement in mid-2017 but this deal was cancelled after a delay of one year. Prior to this the company sold six integrated cement plants and five grinding plants to UltraTech Cement for US$2.5bn in 2017. Following the sale of its remaining cement assets, the company will primarily an engineering, procurement and construction contractor in road and hydroelectric power.