Displaying items by tag: Misr Qena Cement

Egypt: Misr Cement Qena recorded a consolidated net profit of US$11.1m in 2021, more than seven times its 2020 net profit of US$1.46m. Its net sales were US$160m, up by 0.4% from slightly below US$160m.

Egypt: Misr Cement Qena has announced its donation of US$127,000 to the government’s Tahya Misr coronavirus rapid response fund. The fund aims to provide unemployed irregular workers with US$31.7/day, increasing the healthcare budget by 75% and providing ventilators to all who need them, as well as equipping hospitals with masks and detergent. Misr Cement Qena chairman Abd al-Fattah Harhour said, “We are very proud to take a leading part in the initiative as part of our ongoing social responsibility towards our country and our people.”

Egypt: Misr Cement Qena’s profit in the three months to 30 September took a 67% year-on-year dive to US$1.85m from US$5.56m. Sales continued on an upward trend, ending the period up by 6.3% at US$146m from US$138m in the corresponding period of 2018.

Egypt: Misr Beni Suef Cement has reported net profits for the six months to 30 June 2019 of US$2.76m, down by 78.8% from US$13.0m in the same period of 2018. This is part of a wider profit slump for Egyptian domestic cement producers, with Misr Cement Qena’s first half figure down by 85.2% to US$0.87m from US$6.00m a year ago.

Egypt: ASEC Cement, part of Egypt-based Qalaa Holdings, has finalised the sale of ASEC Minya Cement and ASEC Ready Mix to Misr Cement Qena for a total of US$128m.

ASEC Minya Cement is located in Upper Egypt. It began commercial operations in August 2013, with a capacity of 2Mt/yr. ASEC Ready Mix is a producer and distributor of ready-mix concrete. The company operates six batch plants in Upper Egypt with 382,000m³ of production in 2014.

At the time of sale, ASEC Cement held 46.5% of ASEC Minya Cement and 55% of ASEC Ready Mix. Qalaa and its subsidiary National Development and Trading Company (NDT) together own 70% of ASEC Cement.

"We are pleased to announce that the sale process closed today, putting in place another cornerstone in our strategy to deleverage at both the holding and platform company levels," said Ahmed Heikal, Chairman and Founder of Qalaa Holdings. "Both ASEC Minya and ASEC Ready Mix have established themselves as critical players in the vital Upper Egyptian market and we are honoured to have worked with an exceptional management team at each of them to build them into the companies they are today."

Egypt: Misr Qena Cement has denied that it has acquired a 46% stake of ASEC Cement Company and a 55% stake of ASEC Concrete, which has been published in local newspapers. Misr Cement said that the published news was based on an assumption and that it would announce the deal when it was finalised.

Egypt: Qalaa Holdings' revenue in the quarter that ended on 30 June 2015 grew by 33.7% year-on-year to US$267m.

In the first six months of the year, revenue rose by 37.8% to EGP US$515m. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rise by 169% year-on-year to US$72.2m in the first half of 2015. Qalaa's net loss after tax and minority interest improved by 55% to US$10.8m in the second quarter of 2015. In the first half of 2015, its net loss after tax improved by 53% to US$25.1m. This improvement comes despite charges of US$13.1m in the first half of 2015 related to discontinued operations.

Revenue growth was driven by strong performance at TAQA Arabia's fuel marketing arm, which reported 72% top-line growth in the second quarter of 2015 and 73%in the first half of 2015. In the cement division, ASEC Cement's Sudan subsidiary Al-Takamol made a strong contribution to Qalaa's top-line growth. Its revenue grew by 96% in the second quarter of 2015 and by 121% in the first half of 2015. Combined, the energy and cement divisions contributed some 70% of total revenue in the second quarter of 2015.

The first six months of 2015 saw ASEC Holding's sale of its 27.5% stake in Misr Qena Cement, which resulted in a gain from sale of investment equivalent to US$8.56m booked in the second quarter of 2015. The exit from Misr Qena Cement is one of several developments taking place during 2015 that play into Qalaa's risk reduction strategy and its ongoing deleveraging programme. Qalaa's ongoing restructuring efforts continue to reflect positively on its financial performance, with significant improvements at the EBITDA level and a continued narrowing of its bottom-line losses, which improved by 53% year-on-year in the first half of 2015.

Qalaa management has reiterated its strategy for 2015, with its underlining factors being the mitigation of financial risk by significantly deleveraging at the holding and platform company levels, as well as limiting operational risk through the divestment of non-core and non-essential assets while focusing resources on core business and ensuring they have the funding needed to deliver on growth plans.

"Qalaa has repeatedly stressed that deleveraging is one of the company's key strategic goals for 2015 and onward," said Qalaa co-founder and managing director Hisham El-Khazindar. "We remain on track with our divestment programme, the proceeds from which will be utilised to reduce total consolidated debt from the current US$971m, excluding debt associated with Africa Railways and a greenfield megaproject, to around US$639m by the end of 2015."