Displaying items by tag: Acquisition

Netherlands: Royal Cement Benelux, part of Royal El Minya Cement and the Sesco Group, has acquired a new 18,500m² facility in the port of Schiedam near Rotterdam. The new facility, which includes 13,500m2 combined office, storage and operating space will be the company’s second European location. Available on the premises is 160 M1 Quay, which can receive ships up to 15,000dwt.

“The opening of Royal Cement Benelux’s new Schiedam facility is an important step towards the ambition to develop the European market,” said Martin Bakker, general manager of Royal Cement Benelux. The company intends to target its white cement products from the terminal to Germany by barge, to several locations in Belgium and the Netherlands by inland rivers and to the UK by sea.

The new location is intended to be first of several expansions for the company in 2020. Royal Cement Benelux says it wants to take former business in Western Europe from CBR since it stopped white cement production. The group is also opening an Italian terminal.

US: Oldcastle APG, a subsidiary of CRH, has acquired dry mix manufacturer US MIX. The purchase adds to APG's dry mix manufacturing footprint and expands its network of facilities to the Denver, Colorado market. In addition, the acquisition provides APG with materials science expertise and adds another brand, US SPEC, to its existing dry mix product portfolio of Sakrete and Amerimix. No value for the acquisition has been disclosed.

US MIX primarily operates out of a manufacturing facility in Denver, with a secondary specialty bagging location in Fontana, California. Founded in 1968, US MIX has been privately owned by the Peterson family for over 50 years. Its products include bagged concretes, mortars and specialty cement mixes, in addition to liquid repair products.

US MIX currently operates as a Sakrete and Amerimix licensee and offers a variety of specialty products under the well-known US SPEC brand. US SPEC products are professionally engineered concrete and masonry repair products used in a variety of applications, formulated and tested in laboratory conditions under ASTM testing methods and specifications.

Nirma Group won the auction for Emami Cement this week with an US$770m offer. The deal is subject to approval by the Competition Commission of India but it signals further consolidation for the Indian cement industry. It sets Nirma Group and its subsidiary Nuvoco Vistas in a strong position in Central, North and East regions of the country, if authorities agree to it.

Sometimes the press releases connected to corporate acquisitions can be accused of hyperbole but Nuvoco’s chairman Hiren Patel may be proved closer to reality than some when he said, “This acquisition is a momentous and transformational step in Nuvoco’s journey to becoming a major building materials company in India.” This is because Emami Cement operates one integrated cement plant in Risdah, Chhattisgarh and grinding units in Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha with a total installed capacity of 8.3Mt/yr. It also holds mining leases in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Nuvoco Vistas runs four integrated plants in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and three grinding plants in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Haryana with a total installed capacity of around 15.2Mt/yr.

Put all of this together and Nuvoco Vistas has a capacity of 23.5Mt/yr. This may not make it a leader nationally, where it faces the likes of UltraTech Cement’s capacity of just under 110Mt/yr. Yet it does make the producer a serious player regionally in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Backing this up are five grinding plants in East India. Hence, Hiren Patel might not be exaggerating all that much.

It’s difficult to ascertain the valuation of this deal given the mixture of integrated and grinding capacity that was on sale. Altogether, for its total of US$770m, Nirma Group has agreed to pay around US$93/t. Like any deal there must have been some haggling going on given that the projected price for Emami Cement drifted downwards as the auction went on. Emami Cement’s owners reportedly valued the company at around US$1.2bn before the auction and were subsequently said to be looking for US$1bn. Later, local media said that UltraTech Cement was likely to submit an offer around US$0.94bn.

In the wider context of the Indian cement industry, the picture looks similar to when this column looked at the country as a whole in December 2019. Since then the November 2019 production figures have been released showing that cement production grew in the first 11 months of 2019, to 308Mt, but at a far slower rate than in 2018. A growth in production in November 2019 also broke a downward trend since August 2019. Adding to this growing sense of optimism, analysts ICRA were forecasting increasing profitability for cement producers in the 2020 financial year due to ‘benign’ input costs. If correct then Nirma Group will have picked a good time to expand.

UK: Langley Holdings recorded a 42% year-on-year fall in profit in 2019 to Euro59.9m from Euro103m in 2018. There was a 3.3% decline in sales year-on-year to Euro820m from Euro848m. The company attributed its profit drop to its Marelli Motori acquisition and reorganisation of the Italy-based motor and generator producer. Langley Holdings Chairman Tony Langley said, “The group is now poised for the next phase of its development.”

India: Nirma Ltd’s subsidiary cement producer Nuvoco Vistas has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Emami Group for the acquisition of the latter’s 8.3Mt/yr-capacity cement business, including a 2.5Mt/yr integrated plant in Chhattisgarh and three grinding facilities. The company says that with the completion of a capacity expansion to its 4.6Mt/yr Jojobera, Jharkhand, plant in early-2020 it will have a total installed cement capacity of 23.5Mt/yr. Nuvoco Vistas managing director Jay Krishnaswamy said, “This is a momentous development for us, and in line with our long-term ambition to become a leading building materials company delivering superior performance!”

Germany: UK-based Triton Investment Management Limited subsidiary Scur-Alpha has entered into a share purchase agreement with Volkswagen for the German gear manufacturer Renk. Renk will continue to serve the cement industry with its special gear units and horizontal slide bearings under the new ownership.

India: Nuvoco Vistas Corporation, Nirma Ltd’s cement making subsidiary, is reported to be considering a partnership with either Apollo Global Management or Bain Capital to bid for Emami Cement, according to sources quoted by the Mint news outlet. Emami Cement’s owners RS Agarwal and RS Goenka are seeking a valuation of around US$1bn for the company, which operates a 2.5Mt/yr integrated plant at Risda in Chhattisgarh and a 2.5Mt/yr grinding plant at Panagarh in West Bengal.

Emami also acquired a 0.6Mt/yr grinding plant at Bhabua, Bihar in September 2018. In addition, the firm has mining assets in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh and near Jaipur in Rajasthan. Its main markets are in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, where it markets its products under the Double Bull brand.

LafargeHolcim and HeidelbergCement both submitted expression of interest in Emami, while UltraTech Cement has also been linked to the firm.

US: RHI Magnesita has acquired Missouri Refractories for an undisclosed sum. The refractory producer operates a plant at Pevely, Missouri. It produces over 400 high-quality monolithic mixes, which serve industries, including cement, lime, steel and glass.

“With its more than 45 years of experience in fulfilling the needs of demanding, highly loyal and satisfied customers, Missouri Refractories perfectly fits into RHI Magnesita’s strategy to strengthen our position in the North American refractory market,” said Stefan Borgas, chief executive officer (CEO) of RHI Magnesita.

India: Having announced that it will not participate in bidding for Emami Cement, Shree Cement has announced a planned increase to its production capacity of at least 13.1Mt/yr to 55.0Mt/yr or more by 28 February 2023 from 41.9Mt/yr. It would do this through as yet undisclosed upgrades worth a total of US$1.26bn. The Business Standard newspaper has suggested that the measure is aimed at taking on UltraTech, the expected winner in the auction for Emami Cement’s 5.6Mt/yr-capacity installed assets (under expansion to 8.7Mt/yr).

A source of additional capital for Shree Cement’s planned expansion will be a qualified institutional placement (QIP) through which it has raised US$337m. The company acknowledged that it might reach its target through acquisitions from other producers, for which it would not exceed US$80/t of capacity.

India: France-based Imerys has announced the acquisition of calcium silicate producer Hysil by its subsidiary Calderys Indian Refractories from CK Birla Group for Euro10.1m. SeeNews has reported that the expansion to Imerys’ Indian operations is aimed at securing lower prices for raw materials for use in high temperature insulation in various industries, especially the cement sector.