Displaying items by tag: Lafarge Africa
Lafarge Nigeria unit acquires United Cement
06 October 2015Nigeria: An affiliate of Lafarge Africa, Nigerian Cement Holdings (NCH), has completed a 100% acquisition of Nigeria's third-largest cement manufacturer United Cement Company of Nigeria (UNICEM). Lafarge did not disclose the purchase price. NCH owned 70% equity in UNICEM before agreeing to the deal in November 2014 to buy the remaining 30% from Flour Mills. UNICEM cement plant in Cross River has a production capacity of 2.5Mt/yr and is undergoing an expansion to 5Mt/yr, to be completed in 2016.
NSIA and Lafarge Africa to support Ogun State forest landscape restoration project
22 September 2015Nigeria: The Ogun State Government, in partnership with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and Lafarge Africa, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the joint development of the Ogun State Forest Landscape Restoration Project.
The MOU would enable the creation of a legal entity to develop the project, engage development agencies and climate change funds and promote it to large agriculture and forestry investors. At maturity, the project is set to transform 1080km2 of heavily degraded land into an arable green area. It is designed to employ innovative approaches to achieve best-of-breed environmental, social and economic results. The scheme's uniqueness rests in the way it combines land restoration with business development objectives by applying the latest findings of agro-ecology and agroforestry.
The first part of the area will be rehabilitated through mixed reforestation to provide biodiversity hotspot corridors, allowing nomadic herders to cross the area with their herds and encouraging subsistence farming. The other part is expected to be leased to agro-industrial investors interested in the development of large-scale tree crop such as cocoa, coffee, rubber and oil palm as well as annual crops such as maize, sesame, cotton and cassava, among others. Forestry projects within strict social and environmental guidelines may also be considered.
"The restoration and enhancement of our forests benefits the environment and creates jobs in rural communities," said Ogun State governor Ibikunle Amosun. "Increasing the pace and scale of restoration is critically needed to address a variety of threats, including fire, climate change, deforestation and others, for the benefit of our ecosystems and forest-dependent communities. This project will show that enterprise and achieving strong mitigation are mutually supportive in tropical agriculture."
Group managing director/CEO of Lafarge Africa, Peter Hoddinott, said that the organisation's strong commitment to environment and social sustainability in its areas of operations had led the company to naturally support the Ogun State project. Promising a strong positive impact on the issues, Hoddinott said that the use of agro-ecology and agro-forestry principles in the projects would increase the company's productivity, ensure the land becomes one of Nigeria's best carbon capture areas and generate biomass waste that Lafarge intends to use to fire its cement kilns.
Lafarge Africa's first half pre-tax profit rises 13%
30 July 2015Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has reported that its pre-tax profit rose by 13% year-on-year to US$149m in the first six months of 2015, according to Reuters. Its turnover in the first six months of 2015 increased to US$586m from US$523m in the same period of 2014. Its finance and investment income rose to US$17.6m from US$8.59m in 2014.
Nigeria: The Ogun State Government has entered into partnership with Lafarge Africa on sustainable waste management towards the generation of renewable energy and youth employment, according to All Africa.
"This initiative will help clear our waste and make us live more healthily. With this sustainable waste management solution, we would generate much-needed energy and employment opportunities for our youths," said governor Ibikunle Amosun during a visit to the Saje dump site in Abeokuta. He added that there are plans to set up a dump site in each of the three Senatorial Districts of Ogun.
New Lafarge Africa CEO Peter Hoddinott expressed deep conviction that the combustible and recyclable energy would bring a new lease of life to the people, as well as improve the economy of the state.
Lafarge Africa appoints new CEO
27 July 2015Africa: 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: The chairman of Ashaka Cement, Mallam Suleiman Yahyah, has said that the performance of the company in 2014 showed the resilience of the management and commitment of its parent firm, Lafarge Africa, to sustenance of investment in the north eastern part of the country. Despite losing US$7.54m to insurgents attack in 2014, Ashaka Cement ended the year with a profit after tax of US$22.9m, up from US$14.2m in 2013.
"We have embarked on the expansion of our cement production capacity to 4Mt/yr. The expansion will comprise debottlenecking of the existing line and installation of new line," said Yahyah. He added that Ashaka Cement's target is to achieve 95% coal substitution and to introduce a major corporate social responsibility (CSR) schemes that will help the community with agricultural development.
Ashaka Cement’s pre-tax profit rose by 84.5% in 2014
01 April 2015Nigeria: Lafarge Africa's Ashaka Cement's 2014 pre-tax profit rose by 84.5% year-on-year to US$26m. However, its revenue declined by 2.58% year-on-year to US$106m.
Nigeria: Lafarge Africa made a US$122m offer on 10 December 2014 to buy out minority shareholders in its Nigerian business, Ashaka Cement. The offer follows the US$1.35bn merger of Lafarge Africa's Nigerian and South African businesses, which received approval from shareholders in July 2014.
Lafarge Africa said that as part of the merger deal it had acquired a 30% stake in Ashaka Cement, the trigger point for making a full takeover bid under Nigeria's securities and takeover rules.
Under the terms of the offer, shareholders who accept it will receive 57 Lafarge Africa shares for every 202 held in Ashaka Cement and an additional cash payment of US$0.0111/share. The offer will run from 10 December 2014 to 16 January 2015. Shares in Ashaka Cement have gained 17% in 2014.
The consolidation will enable Lafarge, which faces intense competition in Africa, to accelerate growth on the continent. Lafarge Africa owns60% of Lafarge Wapco, its listed subsidiary in Nigeria, 58.6% of Ashaka Cement Plc and 100% of the Atlas cement company. In November 2014, Lafarge Africa entered into an agreement to buy a 30% stake in United Cement Company from Flour Mills of Nigeria, which will give Lafarge's Nigeria Cement Holdings complete control.
Lafarge Africa appoints new board members
05 November 2014Nigeria: 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.
Ashaka Cement stake changes hands
17 September 2014Nigeria: Lafarge Group has sold 58.6% of its stakes in Ashaka Cement to Lafarge Africa for US$252m.