Displaying items by tag: Brand

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia has renamed Holcim Indonesia as Solusi Bangun following its takeover. Semen Indonesia’s corporate secretary Agung Wiharto said that the acquisition was aimed at increasing the country's cement plant network and strengthening its supply chain, according to the Jakarta Post newspaper. He added that the purchase would also benefit the company’s ready-mix concrete business. Lowered distribution and raw material costs are also anticipated.

UK: QPA Northern Ireland (QPANI) will change its name to MPA Northern Ireland (MPANI) in 2019. QPANI is the trade association for the mineral products sector in Northern Ireland with 87 members employing just over 5000 people. It has been an affiliate of the Mineral Products Association (MPA) since 2009.

“Our move from QPANI to MPANI was endorsed by our members as they believe the time is right to take this important step. The reference to minerals in our new title recognises the fact that our membership base is wide and varied across our Industry in Northern Ireland representing the extraction and processing of hard rock, sand, salt, lime and chalk into products that support and sustain our quality of life,” said Gordon Best, director of QPANI. He added that the association had
an ‘excellent’ working relationship with the MPA, other MPA regions in the UK and with the Irish Mining and Quarries Society (IMQS) in the Republic of Ireland.

Ireland/UK: Lagan Group’s bagged cement, brick and tile products have been rebranded within the Breedon Group. The Irish company was acquired by Breedon Group earlier in 2018. It manufactures a range of bagged cement, concrete roof tiles and clay facing bricks, which it supplies to builders’ merchants across the UK and Ireland. The newly branded range has widened the product range available through Breedon’s distributor network.

As James Cousins, regional director responsible for Breedon’s specialist building products, said, “It’s a very exciting time to be part of Breedon. We’ve spent the last few months getting to know our new colleagues, as well as the products and plants within the group, and the rebranding from Lagan to Breedon demonstrates our commitment to the market to move forward as a single brand, leveraging the strength of the enlarged group to offer our customers high quality products and the highest level of customer service.”

Colombia: Cementos Argos has lost a trademark dispute over its Luz Verde brand. The Superintendent of Industry and Commerce (SIC) has authorised wholesale travel agent Luz Verde Representaciones to register its Luz Verde brand despite the objections of the cement producer, according to La República newspaper. SIC considered the opposition of Cementos Argos invalid as the companies operate in different business sectors. The company had previously lost another legal conflict with Energy Evolution Colombia for the registration of a motto including the element Luz Verde.

Oman: Oman Cement has launched a new brand identity and logo. The changes to its marketing are intended convey its strong brand value proposition that is synonymous with quality, strength and reliability, according to the Muscat Daily newspaper. The new brand identity is hoped to help the company’s sales and market share.

Sri Lanka: Singha Cement has launched a new logo and packaging, according to the Daily Financial Times newspaper. It operates a terminal near Colombo. The company is a subsidiary of Germany’s Heidelberg Cement.

Italy: HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Italcementi has rebranded CementirSacci and Cementir Italia as Italsacci and Cemitaly respectively. The move follows the integration of the companies into the group at the start of 2018.

The cement producers operate four integrated plants and two grinding plants. Italsacci runs plants at Tavernola Bergamasca, Greve and Cagnano Amiterno. Cemitaly runs plants at Spoleto, Arquata Scrivia and Taranto.

Italcementi now operates 10 integrated plants, one plant for special projects, 10 cement grinding plants, 113 concrete plants and 13 aggregate quarries in Italy. Its headquarters is based in Bergamo.

India: UltraTech Cement has won a copyright case against a company selling cement brands similar to its own. The cement producer argued at the Bombay High Court that Everest Industries was selling products that were using marks deceptively similar to its own registered mark ‘UltraTech,’ according to the Mint business newspaper. UltraTech said that Everest was using the mark ‘Ultratruf-The Builders Choice’ with similar fonts and colours to its own mark. The court also observed that Everest was deceptively using another brand name, ‘Ambruja’, similar to that of Ambuja Cements.

The court ordered Everest Industries not to use the mark in any manner in mid-May 2018. It also asked it to pay costs and damages.

Persistence has paid off for UltraTech Cement this week. Although the deal is not complete, all the signs are pointing towards India’s largest cement producer buying Binani Cement despite losing an auction for it last month. Here’s a recap of what has happened so far.

In July 2017 the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Kolkata, a semi-judicial body that rules on issues relating to companies, started insolvency proceedings for Binani Cement. It followed a plea by one of the cement company’s creditors, the Bank of Baroda, that had an outstanding claim of around US$15m. The Kolkata bench of the NCLT rejected Binani Cement’s argument that the debt was tiny compared to the assets of its parent company Binani Industries of US$2.15bn. It then appointed an administrator, or resolution professional, called Vijaykumar Iyer, a partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India. More on him later on.

The subsequent auction of Binani Cement raised lots of interest both internationally and locally due to its production base. The company operates a 4.9Mt/yr plant at Binanigram in Rajasthan with two kilns and four mills. It also runs a 1.4Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Sirohi in the same state. Unusually though for an Indian producer it also runs a 2Mt/yr grinding plant at Jebel Ali, Dubai in the UAE and a 0.5Mt/yr integrated plant, Shandong Cement, in China.

Its products domestically in India include 43 and 53 grades Ordinary Portland Cement and Portland Pozzolana Cement, with the Bollywood film star Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador. On that last point the Indian Supreme Court chastised Binani Cement in 2014 for not paying sales tax in Rajasthan whilst being able to hire Bachchan! However, given the ferocity of the struggle to buy Binani Cement maybe all that marketing of the brand paid off, giving the producer a much higher profile than it might otherwise have had.

Anyway, lots of companies showed interest in Binani Cement in the first round of bidding in late 2017. CRH, LafargeHolcim, HeidelbergCement, India Cement, Orient Cement, Ramco Cement, Shree Cement, UltraTech Cement and Piramal Group were all linked to the auction. Eventually UltraTech Cement, JSW Cement, Ramco Cement, HeidelbergCement India, Dalmia Bharat and a pair of Indian investors all submitted bids and JSW Cement emerged as the winner with a bid of US$919m. However the emergence of an additional liability of around US$250m scuppered that auction when it turned out that Binani Cement had offered a corporate guarantee for the acquisition of a fibreglass asset in Europe known as 3B in 2012 by Binani Industries. By February 2018 the next auction was in progress and this time Dalmia Bharat Cement and UltraTech Cement led the race. Dalmia Bharat won the second auction with a bid of around US$1.03bn made in a consortium with Bain Capital’s India Resurgent Fund and Piramal Enterprises.

At this point the situation might have conceivably slowed down. Instead, UltraTech Cement kept on fighting and queried the entire bidding process. It then made a direct offer of US$1.11bn to Binani Cement in the form of a so-called ‘comfort letter’ that Binani Industries used to stop the insolvency process. At the same time it received approval from the Competition Commission of India in its bid for Binani Cement, the previous absence of which was one of the reasons its bid against Dalmia Bharat was rejected.

Indian company law now faced a dilemma over how a bankruptcy works given that the NCLT was meant to be in charge. A way out was found though when the NCLT in Kolkata and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal both allowed the bidders to settle the dispute ‘amicably.’ To add further confusion the administrator Vijaykumar Iyer also alleged right in the middle of the final tussle between Dalmia Bharat and UltraTech Cement that fraudulent transactions had been made by Binani Cement! Whether this has any further implications remains to be seen.

At this stage nobody is likely to declare UltraTech Cement the winner of Binani Cement until it actually picks up the keys to the cement plants. Perhaps not even then in case of any lingering legal issues! UltraTech Cement clearly views Rajasthan as a growth area given the tenacity with which it has gone after Binani Cement. It operates two integrated plants in the state and is building two more of its own. After its long journey in buying plants from Jaiprakash Associates in 2017, UltraTech Cement is starting to look like the cement producer that simply won’t take no for an answer.

Philippines: Phinma Group has returned to the cement industry bringing its ‘Union Cement’ brand back to the market. Its cement production subsidiary, Philcement, is also building a new 2Mt/yr cement plant in Bataan, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. The new plant is expected to be operational in early 2019. No cost for the plant has been disclosed.

Phinma sold its majority interest in Union Cement in 2004 and the business eventually became part of Switerland’s Holcim. However, Phinma subsequently required the Union Cement trademark after Holcim Philippines abandoned it.

The cement producer’s head is Eduardo Sahagun, the former boss of Holcim Philippines from 2013 to 2017. At present Philcement is distributing cement from third parties.