Displaying items by tag: Shares

South Africa: PPC has completed the components of its 2008 broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) transaction, releasing US$74m in funding in mid-December 2016. Strategic black partners and community service groups subscribed for 15.6 million shares as part of earlier agreements. The funding will be used to reduce company debts and pay for a new production line at its Slurry cement plant in Lichtenburg.

India: JSW Cement has acquired a promoters' share in Shiva Cement and has also launched an open offer to acquire a 32% stake from public shareholders in the company. JSW Cement, with Sun Investments Private and Reynold Traders, has made an open offer to the public equity shareholders of Shiva Cement to buy up to a 32% share in the company at a value of US$12.8m. In late September 2016 promoters of Shina Cement held a 37.15% stake, while public shareholders held the remaining 62.85%, according to Indian media.

Trinidad & Tobago: Cemex has increased its offer to buy a controlling stake in Trinidad Cement. The cement producer has instructed its subsidiary Sierra Trading to make a higher offer and take-over bid with a value of US$101m with a deadline of 24 January 2017. Previously, in early December 2016 it offered US$89m. The amended offer is dependent on Cemex acquiring control of Trinidad Cement, among other conditions. In late December 2016 the directors of Trinidad Cement advised shareholders to reject Cemex’s offer because it was seen as poor value.

Trinidad & Tobago: The directors of Trinidad Cement have advised shareholders reject an offer by Cemex to take over the company. The cement producer issued a circular to its shareholders in late December 2016 advising them that the offer by Cemex’s subsidiary Sierra Trading was ‘not fair’ from a financial point of view. Cemex released plans in early December 2016 to present an offer and take-over bid to Trinidad Cement’s shareholders that would, if successful, give it control of the company. The value of the offer was placed at US$89m and it expires on 10 January 2016.

Trinidad and Tobago: Cemex plans to takeover Trinidad Cement by increasing its share in the cement producer through its subsidiary Sierra Trading. It will present an offer and take-over bid to Trinidad Cement’s shareholders, which if successful, will increase its share of the company to 74.9% from the 39.5% that it holds at present. The value of the offer has been placed at US$89m. The offer is reliant on Sierra acquiring at least enough of Trinidad Cement’s shares to give it control. The offer period is expected to close on 10 January 2017.

If the offer is successful, Trinidad Cement will continue operating as previously. Trinidad Cement’s main operations are in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados. It is the majority shareholder of Caribbean Cement Company.

India: LafargeHolcim has increased its shareholding in Ambuja Cement and ACC via its subsidiary Holderind Investments. It now owns 63% of Ambuja Cement’s shares and 4.5% of ACC’s shares. The group will pay for the additional stakes in Indian Rupees. The impact on LafargeHolcim’s net debt will be Euro302m. It described India as one of LafargeHolcim’s key markets with solid long-term fundamentals and a clear potential for further improvement in business performance.

Italy: HeidelbergCement has completed its acquisition of a 45% share in Italcementi from Italmobiliare. All conditions for the closing of the transaction have been fulfilled following the approval by the relevant competition authorities. The purchase triggers a mandatory tender offer to the remaining shareholders of Italcementi. HeidelbergCement expects the entire transaction to be completed in the second half of 2016.

“By adding Italcementi to our group, we are considerably strengthening our global footprint and innovation capabilities. We see significant potential for value creation with the realisation of synergies and by learning from each other’s best practices. From now on, we will focus all our efforts on the integration of Italcementi into our group,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the management board of HeidelbergCement.

On 28 July 2015, HeidelbergCement and Italmobiliare entered into a share purchase agreement about the acquisition of a 45% shareholding in Italcementi. On 1 July 2016 HeidelbergCement acquired 157.17 million ordinary shares, representing 45% of the share capital of Italcementi for a total consideration of Euro1.67bn. 82.82 million ordinary shares were acquired against cash. The remaining 74.35 million ordinary shares were acquired against the assignment of 10.5 million newly issued shares of HeidelbergCement. Following this, Italmobiliare has become the second largest industrial shareholder of HeidelbergCement, with a stake of 5.3%.

In the share purchase agreement, Italmobiliare agreed to purchase certain non-core assets of Italcementi, including Italgen, Bravosolution, and certain non-core real estate. Italcementi had sold these assets to Italmobiliare on 30 June 2016 for total proceeds of Euro237m.

The acquisition of the 45% stake in Italcementi triggers the obligation to execute a mandatory tender offer to the remaining shareholders of Italcementi. The offering document will be filed with the Italian Securities and Exchange Commission (CONSOB), within 20 days after the closing, and will be published upon completion of CONSOB’s review period. The acceptance period will be agreed with Borsa Italiana. The acceptance period is expected to commence at the end of August 2016.

Russia: China National Building Materials Group Corporation (CNBM) plans to become a shareholder of Eurocement Group. The companies signed an agreement on cooperation in production of construction materials in China on 25 June 2016 in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping.

The companies have agreed to upgrade Eurocement’s cement plants and construct new production lines for dry process production of cement. The agreement also envisages establishing clusters for production of construction materials in seven Russian federal districts at the basis of the local company. Local media reports that CNBM will invest US$5bn in the project.

Philippines: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the US$857m initial public offering of Cemex Holdings Philippines. Documents filed with the SEC showed that Cemex Holdings planned to sell 2.032 billion common shares at an offer price of up to US$0.37/share to raise US$746m in proceeds. Another 304.94 million shares were allotted in case of oversubscription, which could increase total proceeds to US$857m, making it among the largest IPOs in the country, according to the Manila Standard newspaper.

Documents show that Cemex Holdings aimed to use the proceeds to repay up to US$504m worth of short-term loans from related third party New Sunward Holdings, which was used to acquire operating subsidiaries Apo Cement Corp and Solid Cement Corp. Cemex Holdings said it planned to spend US$52m for 2016 capital expenditures, including US$13m for maintenance of existing cement facilities.

Cemex Holdings is a newly formed subsidiary of Cemex Asian South East Corp., which is wholly-owned by Cemex España, which in turn is indirectly owned by Cemex. Cemex Holdings operates two cement plants in the Philippines with a cement production capacity of 5.7Mt/yr.

Russia: Filaret Galchev, the owner of Eurocement, expects that demand for cement in Russia will fall by 8% - 10% in 2016 after falling 12% in 2015. The cement producer will sell about 20Mt of cement in Russia and about 3.5Mt in other regions including Uzbekistan and Ukraine in 2016. He added that average production costs at the group will produce cement at around US$25/t.

In an interview with Rossiya 24 television reported upon by Interfax, Galchev also described Eurocement’s sale of its 6.1% stake in LafargeHolcim in February 2016 as ‘unexpected’. The Russian cement producer sold its share in LafargeHolcim after they lost nearly half of their value in six months.

"No, I did not expect it. We analysed the situation for a long time, but that is the decision that was made," said Galchev. He added that he had no issues with Sberbank, the Russian bank that restructured Eurocement’s debt after the sale of the shares in LafargeHolcim.

Originally Eurocement was a shareholder in Holcim and it received a stake in LafargeHolcim after that company was formed in a merger. The stake was subsequently transferred to Sberbank of Russia in January 2016 after the shares, which Galchev had acquired with financing from Bank of America, lost over 40% of their value in half a year. At the beginning of February 2016, Sberbank sold the 6.12% LafargeHolcim stake to investors from the UK, Switzerland, the US and other countries.