28 August 2015
Cherat Cement revenue up but profit down 28 August 2015
Pakistan: Cherat Cement Company posted a profit of US$12.4m in the year ending 30 June 2015, a slight decrease from US$12.7m a year earlier. Turnover rose to US$63.2m compared to US$62.1m a year ago.
Bamburi Cement profit up 94% in first half 28 August 2015
Kenya: Bamburi Cement has reported a 94% jump in its pre-tax profit for the first half of 2015 to US$43m compared to the first half of 2014. Turnover grew to US$186m from US$166m, as governments and others continued to invest in infrastructure projects.
The company attributed the strong performance to growth in demand in its two main markets of Uganda and Kenya, cost cutting and gains in its US-Dollar-based liquid assets due to a steep weakening of the Ugandan and Kenyan currencies. Exports to other African markets were also strong.
"The outlook for the rest of 2015 is stable, with projected and continued positive growth in all regional East African economies," said Bamburi in a statement.
Ireland: CRH CEO Albert Manifold has said that the company will now take a pause from large-scale acquisitions following the completion of its US$7.3bn acquisition of various Lafarge and Holcim assets and its recent US$1.3bn acquisition of glazing products producer C R Laurence. Manifold was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that significant acquisitions going forward are 'unlikely,' and that the company will focus on integrating its two big acquisitions over the next 12 - 18 months.
CRH had previously been linked with two other large-scale cement industry acquisitions. In India, it was in the running to acquire 5Mt/yr of Lafarge assets that have since been sold to Birla Group. Meanwhile, in South Korea CRH had been linked with the wholesale acquisition of Tongyang Cement & Energy. Due to Manifold's announcement, it appears that the South Korean deal is no longer on the table.