Displaying items by tag: South Africa

South Africa/Switzerland: LafargeHolcim says it is in talks with the board of directors of Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) regarding a possible transaction in Africa. It added that no agreement with PPC has yet been reached and no assurance could be given at this stage that a transaction will materialise.

Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings with AfriSam made an offer for PPC in early September 2017. However, PPC said that the offer was ‘undervalued.’ Nigerian company Dangote Cement has also said that it is interested in buying PPC for the ‘right’ price.

Nigeria/South Africa: Onne van der Weijde, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Dangote Cement, has said that his company still interested in buying South Africa’s PPC for the ‘right’ price. Weijde made the comments on an analysts call about the cement producer’s nine-month results, according to Reuters. He added that the South African company was a good fit for Dangote Cement.

South Africa: Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members at PPC’s Slurry cement plant in North West province have gone on strike over wages. The NUM gave the cement producer a notice to strike in mid-October 2017 and then workers started taking action on 17 October 2017. The union wants a pay rise on 12% and other benefits, but PPC has only offered 6%.

South Africa: Ireland’s CRH is considering making a bid for PPC according to unnamed sources quoted by Bloomberg. However, no final decision has been made and neither CRH nor PPC have commented on the matter. Following an offer made by Fairfax Financial Holdings in September 2017, PPC said that it had received two other offers. Nigeria’s Dangote Cement publicly admitted that it was in talks with PPC but it later withdrew from the bidding process.

South Africa: Dangote Cement has formerly withdrawn from the bidding process for PPC. The Nigerian cement producer confirmed it was in talks with PPC in mid-September 2017 following an offer by Fairfax Financial Holdings.

South Africa: PPC has hired Investec bank to review an offer by Fairfax Financial Holdings to buy a stake in it. The process will also look at ‘credible’ offers made by other investors including Nigeria’s Dangote Cement. No duration for the review has been specified but the cement producer said it would take ‘some time.’ The Takeover Regulation Panel has granted Fairfax an extension until November 2017 to distribute its offer to shareholders, PPC said, allowing Investec more time to complete its report into the proposal.

South Africa: Prudential Investment Managers, one of the main shareholders of PPC, says it opposes a proposed merger between the cement producer and AfriSam. It said that the deal undervalues the group, according to the Business Daily newspaper. It added that it expects PPC’s share price to double in the next three to four years as production capacity in sub-Saharan African comes on line. Prudential owns a 14% share in PPC. Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings has made an offer of US$154m to buy a stake in PPC on condition that the cement producer agrees to a merger with AfriSam.

South Africa: AfriSam has described its offer with Fairfax Financial Holdings to buy a stake in PPC for US$154m as ‘fair.’ In a questions and answer statement on its website it commented that the “…Partial Offer and Merger reflect the fair and relative value of PPC and AfriSam based on the unaffected market price for PPC shares and other valuation benchmarks.” PPC described the offer to its shareholders as low and has confirmed that it has been in communication with other potential bidders, including Nigeria’s Dangote Cement.

South Africa: PPC is seeking a higher offer from Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings that has made a bid to buy a stake in it. The cement producer said in a document to shareholders that it anticipated that Fairfax would make a higher bid given ‘the lower offer price on the table’. The Canadian financial company offered US$154m to buy a portion of PPC with the condition that it also merge with AfriSam. PPC also confirmed that it had received a non-binding communication from Nigeria’s Dangote Cement to buy it.

South Africa: Nigeria’s Dangote Cement has confirmed its interest in bidding for PPC. The company said that its board of directors had communicated to the board of PPC but that the dialogue was at a preliminary stage. The offer follows offers by Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings with AfriSam and other unnamed bids.