Displaying items by tag: Tongyang Cement & Energy

South Korea: Tongyang Networks plans to sell its stake in Sampyo Cement for US$12.7m, according to Reuters. The sale covers 3,000,000 shares. Tongyang Cement & Energy changed its name to Sampyo Cement in 2017 following its purchase by Sampyo Corporation in 2015.

South Korea: Eugene Group intends to increase its stake in Tongyang up to 25%. The South Korean conglomerate has expressed its interest in leading Tongyang, including its cement subsidiary, according to Maeil Business.

“Tongyang has tens of thousands of shareholders without a significant major shareholder after its workout program,” said Chung Jin-hak, head in charge of construction materials unit of Eugene Group. “As of late last year, among 34,000 shareholders, only four companies including Eugene Group and Pine Tree Investment and Management own more than 1% stake each.”

Tongyang’s largest shareholder Eugene Group holds a 10.01% stake in the company, followed by the 9.74% owned by Pine Tree Investment and Management. Eugene Group plans to buy shares through all possible measures such as purchasing shares directly from major shareholders, in a block trade or in the market. Eugene Group has highlighted potential synergies between its own concrete business and Tongyang.

South Korea: South Korea's antitrust watchdog has fined six local cement makers a combined US$168m for fixing the prices of cement products and divvying up the market, according to Dow Jones.

According to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), cement companies have allegedly colluded to rig the prices of cement products by controlling output and market share in 2011. The suspected companies are Ssangyong Cement Industry Co., Tongyang Cement & Energy Corp., Hanil Cement Co., Sungshin Cement Co., Hyundai Cement Co. and Asia Cement Co. Ssangyong was set to take 22.9% of the total market share, while Tongyang and Hanil were in charge of 15.1% and 14.9%, respectively.

"Managers of the six companies had regular monthly meetings to oversee whether or not the members had complied with the arranged shipments," said the FTC. The prices of cements surged by 43% year-on-year in April 2012.

Industry leader Ssangyong was slapped with US$73.6m of fines, followed by Hanil with US$34.5m and Sungshin with US$36.7m. Tongyang was exempted from the penalty, as the cement maker has been under court receivership since October 2013.

The FTC said that it will strictly crack down on price-rigging practices in backbone industries to build sound market order and fair competition.

South Korea: The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has continued its investigation into whether cement producers colluded to raise cement prices. The antitrust watchdog conducted an on-site probe into cement producers including Tongyang Cement & Energy and Hanil Cement in mid July according to industry sources cited by the Maeil Business Newspaper and the FTC. If a fine is levied a legal battle may follow regarding whether the Sampyo consortium, chosen as the preferred bidder to acquire Tongyang Cement & Energy, should pay the fine imposed by the FTC on Tongyang.

Upon the request from the ready-mixed concrete industry, the regulator started an investigation into alleged price-fixing in the South Korean cement industry in April 2013, but it has yet to reach a conclusion. The latest site visit is believed to have been organised to obtain further evidence on suspicions of price-fixing.

The combined sales of the seven cement makers that account for about 88% of South Korea's cement market are estimated at be up to US$855m/yr. Suspicions of cartel-like activity date back to 2011 and this may be reflected in potential fines if any price-fixing is proved.

Ireland/South Korea: CRH's investment spend for 2015 looks set to surpass Euro7bn, with the company heavily linked with a Euro800m move for the number two player in South Korea's cement market, Tongyang Cement & Energy. Tongyang Cement & Energy has a market value of nearly Euro600m. Its owner is reportedly putting a 74% stake on the market, with a Euro800m price tag being touted.

CRH's Euro6.5bn purchase of assets being offloaded as part of the merger between Holcim and Lafarge is due to conclude in August 2015. CRH is set to become the third-largest building materials business in the world on the back of that deal, but management has already suggested that it won't be the limit of its 2015 spending. CRH chief executive Albert Manifold said that the group had a 'very strong' acquisition pipeline.

CRH spent Euro45m in the first four months of 2015. Manifold said that CRH currently has a separate Euro1bn US deal under consideration and a Euro700m deal, but noted that CRH typically concludes around 10% of the deals that come onto its radar. However, if all of those deals came to pass, CRH's 2015 investments would exceed Euro8bn.

While the Euro700m deal is thought to be a European target, if the Korean deal goes ahead, it would further boost CRH's Asian presence, which is already being improved via new assets in the Philippines coming on stream via the LafargeHolcim deal. CRH said that it would repackage its Asian operations into a separate grouped entity in 2015 to cater for its growing size. The South Korean market consumes about 45Mt/yr of cement from a total production capacity of around 65Mt/yr.