Displaying items by tag: Shares

UAE: Union Cement plans to de-list its shares from the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and convert the company into a private joint stock company, according to the Gulf News newspaper. India’s Shree Cement agreed to buy Union Cement for US$305m in January 2018 subject to regulatory approval. Union Cement operates a cement plant Ras Al- Khaimah.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has publicly dismissed media speculation about its alleged plans to purchase Barro Group. The building materials producer said that whilst it had proposed transaction plans to Barro at ‘various times’ no agreement has been reached on any such deal.
Analysts at the investment bank Citi said that Adelaide Brighton’s management were keen to buy the US$384m cement business owned by its major shareholder, the Barro Group, according to the Australian newspaper. However, the analysts said they believed the complex shareholding structure could pose problems.

Ireland: The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommends that investors vote against a proposed Euro10m pay rise for executives at CRH. The building materials company is set to increase executive pay at its annual general meeting in late April 2018, according to the Irish Times newspaper. ISS recommends that shareholders vote against a remuneration report for several reasons including CRH's failure to set out targets for its managers and the group's proposal to give its finance director a 10% rise.

In 2017, CRH paid its chief executive officer Albert Manifold a Euro3.12m bonus, Euro2.15m salary and pension and Euro3.4m in share options. His pay was 13% less than in 2016. Finance director Senan Murphy's salary and pension was Euro0.91m and he received a Euro1m bonus. Former group transformation director Maeve Carton, who left the role in August 2017, was paid Euro2.67m.

CRH’s remuneration report says the annual bonus payments are based on a combination of financial targets and ‘personal strategic goals.’ It plans to reveal more details in 2019 once it is no longer commercially sensitive. It defended Murphy's proposed pay rise as he was paid below the market rate when he became financial director in 2016.

South Africa: PPC has revealed details of a US$176m black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction. The transaction, together with the BEE shareholding from the two previous transactions, will result in an effective 30% BEE shareholding in PPC South Africa Holdings, making the company compliant with the Mining Charter, according to the Pretoria Times newspaper. Called PPC Phakama, meaning ‘rise up’ in Zulu, the transaction will result in PPC's equity shareholding in PPC South Africa being reduced from 100% to 74.6%.

Sibonginkosi Nyanga, an analyst at Momentum Securities, said that the cement producer was required by the Mining Charter to implement the transaction. It requires companies to have at least a 26% BEE shareholding. Non-compliance could have had the potential put PPC’s mining rights at risk.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton is reportedly considering buying the cement business of Barro Group for around US$387m. Barro Group is a major stockholder in Adelaide Brighton that recently increased its stake to 40%, according to the Australian newspaper. The increase in its stake has generated speculation about the relationship between the two companies.

Barro Group operates Independent Cement and Lime (ICL), a joint venture with Adelaide Brighton and Barro. ICL is a specialist supplier of cement and cement blended products throughout Victoria and New South Whales and is also the exclusive distributor of cement for Adelaide Brighton.

Pakistan: A consortium of investors including Denmark’s FLSmidth have purchased a stake in Power Cement. The investors include the Danish Investment Fund for Under-Developed Countries (IFU) and IFU Investment Partners (IIP). As part of the deal the board of the cement producer has approved the appointment of Anders Paludan as a director.

Canada/France: Pension investment management companies La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) have each purchased a minority stake in France’s Fives. CDPQ and PSP Investments will each acquire a ‘significant’ minority stake in Fives, which will remain controlled by its management, to support its next development phase. Ardian, an investment house, will continue to be part of the new shareholding structure, as a minority co-investor. The completion of the transaction remains subject to approval by relevant regulatory authorities. No value for the deal has been disclosed.

“We are very enthusiastic to enter a new phase of our development with CDPQ and PSP Investments. Their long-term approach to investment, their deep valuable industrial insights and their strategic vision aligned with that of the management team make them ideal partners for the group, allowing Fives to take advantage, at a global scale, of the full potential of our diversified operations,” said Frédéric Sanchez, chief executive officer (CEO) of Fives Group.

Founded in 1812, engineering company Fives designs and supplies machines, process equipment and production lines for industries including cement, minerals, aluminium, steel, glass, automotive, aerospace, logistics, energy and sugar. The group is located in over 30 countries and it has nearly 8400 employees.

Chile: Invesa has launched a public offer to increase the shares its holds in Cementos Bío Bío. The move follows its acquisition of a 13.1% share in the cement producer from Brazil’s Votorantim for around US$46m in November 2017, according to the Diario Financiero newspaper. The latest acquisition bid could see Invesa hold a 79% share of Cementos Bío Bío, combining other shares owned by other business that the Invesa family owns.

Argentina/US: Loma Negra has set the price of its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. It plans to raise about US$954m from the sale. Most of the proceeds will go to InterCement Brasil, Brazil’s second-largest cement producer, which owns 99% of Loma Negra, according to Reuters. The rest will go to Loma Negra.

Founded in 1926, Loma Negra is vertically integrated cement and concrete company based in Argentina. It also owns a 51% stake in a cement plant in Paraguay.

India: JSW Cement plans to invest around US$277m towards increasing its production capacity and it is considering an initial public offering (IPO) in 2019 or 2020. The cement producer wants to increase the cement production capacity to 2.2Mt/yr in 2018 from 1Mt/yr at its Dolvi grinding plant in Maharashtra, according to the Press Trust of India. A further expansion to 4.5Mt/yr is scheduled for 2019.

"We expect huge demand for cement in the country and plan to expand our cement manufacturing capacity from 12.5Mt/yr to 20Mt/yr by 2020. We are adding 4.5Mt/yr at our Dolvi unit in Maharashtra and 1.2Mt/yr at out Vijaynagar unit in Karnataka, apart from 1.2Mt/yr adding at our Odisha unit,” said JSW Cement’s managing director Parth Jindal. He added that the company would wait for the outcome of the general election in 2019 and create a ‘healthy’ financial profile before launching the IPO. After raising money in the offering the company plans to reach a 30Mt/yr capacity by 2025 and 50Mt/yr in 2030 both through new builds and acquisitions.