Displaying items by tag: Lafarge Africa

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa’s chairman Mobolaji Balogun says that the company plans to cut its debts by 2020 before continuing with its expansion programme. In an interview with Bloomberg he said that the cement producer wants reduce its leverage ratio to below 70% from over 100% at present.

The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim wants to take advantage of improvements in the Nigerian economy and a recovery in South Africa to grow its profits. Its total debt recently dropped to about US$600m. Lafarge Africa incurred debt to expand the production capacity at its Calabar cement plant and plans to add more production to plants in the southwest and the north of the country.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa’s sales rose by 36% year-on-year to US$835m in 2017 from US$613m in 2016. Its recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) nearly doubled to US$161m from US$81m. Michel Puchercos, the chief executive officer of Lafarge Africa, attributed the strong margins in its Nigerian business to cost initiatives and higher prices. He added that the company’s increased use of alternative fuels and coal to offset gas shortages in the west of Nigeria and a focus on coal and gas in the east and north of the country aided market share.

However, the cement producer reported a ‘challenging’ business environment in South Africa, where operations are expected to ‘stabilise’ in 2018. Its Lichtenburg cement plant returned to normal operations during the course of the year and a turnaround plan was initiated in order to transform the company’s operations.

Nigeria: China’s CBMI and LafargeHolcim have held a signing ceremony for a 5000t/day cement plant upgrade project near Ewekoro. The deal follows previous collaborations between the companies in the country, including work at Ewekoro and Unicem.

Nigeria: Ashaka Cement plans to complete its 16MW captive power plant in early 2019. The subsidiary of Lafarge Africa and LafargeHolcim started the US$30.5m project in 2017, according to the Nigerian Guardian newspaper. Once operational the power plant will supply additional electricity to the national grid as well as supplying the neighbouring cement plant.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has reduced the size of its board of directors to 11 members from 17. The African subsidiary of LafargeHolcim increased the size of its board followings its formation but following its annual general meeting it has now agreed to decrease it once more. Joe Hudson, Jean-Christophe Barbant, Oludewa Edodo-Thorpe and Thierry Metro have all resigned voluntarily with effect from 8 June 2017.

Nigeria: Adepeju Adebajo has resigned as an executive director of Lafarge Africa. Adebajo was the Managing Director, Wapco Operations and then Managing Director, Geo-Cycle and Project Management Office at Lafarge Africa. Her resignation from Lafarge follows her appointment as the Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun State.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has appointed Michel Puchercos as its new group Managing Director and chief executive officer. He assumed his post on 1 April 2016. He replaces Peter Hoddinott.

Puchercos, a French national, started his career in 1982 at the French Ministry of Agriculture before working at other companies in the biochemistry and food industry. He joined Lafarge as Head, Strategy and Purchasing in Orsan, Lafarge Biochemistry, and in 1998 became Director of Cement Strategy and Information Systems, Lafarge Gypsum. Puchercos became the Director of Cement strategy, Lafarge Group in France in 2003 before becoming the CEO for Lafarge operations in Kenya and Uganda in 2005. He then became the CEO of Lafarge South Korea in 2009.

Puchercos is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, and the National School of Rural Engineering, Waterways & Forests, France.

Nigeria: AshakaCem, a subsidiary of Lafarge Africa and member of the LafargeHolcim group, has appointed Alhaji Rabiu Abdullahi Umar as its new managing director. AshakaCem said in a statement that Umar was appointed to succeed Leonard Palka, a Polish national, who has resigned from the company.

AshakaCem in Gombe State is one of the four cement companies controlled by Lafarge Africa in Nigeria. Formerly the companies were known as Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria before the name was changed in 2014.

Africa: Lafarge Africa has appointed Peter Hoddinott as the new group managing director / CEO. The former CEO, Guillaume Roux, will remain on the board as a director, according to the Kuwait News Agency

Hoddinott is a British mining engineer and started his business career in the mines of southern Africa before joining Blue Circle in 1988. Prior to this appointment, he worked as a lecturer in Imperial College of Science and Technology, London University in 1983 - 1988. While at Blue Circle, he worked in the Technical Centre and also managed the UK cement plants before going to the Philippines as CEO in 1999. When Lafarge took over Blue Circle, he stayed in Manila to integrate the two companies, leaving in 2003 to become regional president for Lafarge in Latin America. In 2007, Hoddinott became regional president for Western Europe (cement), including Morocco. In 2012, he became executive vice president (energy and strategic sourcing) responsible for worldwide energy strategy and sourcing of Lafarge's US$12bn/yr externally sourced inputs. Hoddinott was appointed group executive vice president (performance). He is currently president of Cembureau.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange of the appointment of Adepeju Adebajo and Anders Kristiansson to the board of Lafarge Africa. Both staff members were formally appointed on 27 October 2014.

Adebajo is currently the MD of WAPCO operations. Prior to this, she served as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at Mouka Limited. She was already the CEO of UTC Nigeria Plc, where she successfully turned the business around.

She previously headed strategic planning, brand management and product development at the United Bank for Africa and has had management consulting experience at Boston Consulting Group in the UK and financial analysis experience at Citibank in the UK.

Peju holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical Engineering) from the Imperial College of Science & Technology, London; a Master of Engineering (Chemical Engineering) from the University of London; and a Master of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston.

Anders Kristiansson is a Swedish citizen who started his career with Procter & Gamble (P&G) in Scandinavia and thereafter worked for P&G in South Africa. He has been a Global Divisional Controller for Eaton Automotive working in Europe and North America, whereafter he returned to Africa to oversee Celtel's finance departments across its African operations as Director of Financial Operations.

He moved to Nigeria in 2008 as Group CFO for PZ Cussons Nigeria, managing Finance and IT for PZ's five Nigerian companies. Prior to joining Lafarge, he was the CFO for NBC/Coca-Cola HBC's operations in Nigeria.

He holds a Master of Science Degree in Business Administration and Economics from the Gothenburg University, Sweden.