Displaying items by tag: Cyprus

Cyprus: Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou has appealed to both sides for a resolution to the ongoing cement workers' strike that has now entered its fourth week, according to Cyprus Mail. Negotiations over a new collective agreement have been rejected, with workers demanding the restoration of overtime pay to pre-2018 levels, a reduction agreed upon between 2018 and 2020. Despite appeals from the minister and some employers open to continuing discussions, the unions have maintained a firm stance against altering their demands. The construction industry has reportedly come to a standstill as a result, prompting the minister’s involvement.

Panayiotou said "The restoration of normality in the concrete production sector is necessary for the smooth operation of the wider construction industry and other affected sectors, to avoid negative effects on the Cypriot economy. Unfortunately, we have entered the fourth week of strike measures despite the repeated efforts that have been made to bridge the gap.”

Cyprus/Canada: Eureka Shipping has announced the construction of a new cement carrier for operation in the Great Lakes, designed to replace two older vessels whilst maintaining the same cargo capacity. The vessel will discharge cargo at rates of up to 1000t/hr.

The carrier is currently under construction by the Holland Shipyard Group in the Netherlands and is scheduled for delivery in 2025. Until then, the MV Sunnanvik will service its trade routes in the region from April 2024.

Cyprus: Vassiliko Cement has incurred a fine of Euro5.07m from the Cypriot Committee for the Protection of Competition (EPA). The commission found that the producer took advantage of its dominant position in the local cement market to impose 'unfair sale prices.' This 'excessively enlarged' the producer's profit margins in the period from 2013 to 2018.

The EPA also ordered Vassiliko Cement not to repeat the violation.

Cyprus: Vassiliko Cement has secured environmental clearance to build a new alternative fuel (AF) store at its Vassiliko cement plant in Nicosia. Philenews has reported that the facility will replace the site’s former AF store, which burned down in a fire started by a mobile shredder in June 2022.

India: Investment research firm Hindenburg Research has accused Adani Group of conducting a 'stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme' over a period of ‘decades.’ The US-based firm alleged that listed companies belonging to Adani Group are indirectly part-owned by shell entities and funds connected to the Adani family’s private offshore trusts and companies. The listed companies have purportedly paid money into the offshore trusts and companies, which in turn funded the shell entities and funds investing and trading in Adani Group stocks. Hindenburg Research said that four Adani Group listed companies are ‘near the delisting threshold’ under Indian law requiring a minimum 25% non-promoter holding in listed companies.

Bloomberg has reported that Hindenburg Research said that its two-year investigation into Adani Group uncovered a ‘vast labyrinth of offshore shells’ managed by Adani Group chair Gautam Adani’s brother Vinod Adani. It identified 38 such shell entities based in Mauritius, and other entities based in Cyprus, Singapore, the UAE and the Caribbean. It reported that ‘many’ Vinod Adani-controlled entities show ‘no obvious signs of operations.’ Nonetheless, they have collectively ‘moved billions of dollars.’ Hindenburg Research has uncovered evidence of what it called ‘efforts that seem designed to mask the shell entities, including recurrent listings of ‘nonsensical services’ on their websites. Many of these allegedly have no named employees, and were formed on the same days as others. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) confirmed that the offshore funds in question are subject to an on-going investigation.

In a statement, Adani Group’s chief financial officer (CFO) Jugeshinder Singh said that Hindenburg Research had not made “any attempt to contact us or verify the factual matrix.” Singh described the allegations “stale, baseless and discredited.”

Hindenburg Research has taken a short position on Adani Group, meaning that it may make money should the price of shares in Adani Group drop.

Separately, Adani Group acquired a 63% stake in Ambuja Cements and a 57% stake in ACC from Switzerland-based Holcim through an offshore special purpose vehicle (SPV) in September 2022.

Hindenburg Research's report on Adani Group, entitled ‘Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History’ can be found here.

Cyprus/Türkiye: Çimsa has appointed Soner Atilmis as the terminal manager at its Kıbrıs terminal in Northern Cyprus. Previous roles at Çimsa included working as Domestic Special Products Sales Executive and Technical Support Supervisor since 2007. Before this he held project management and mechanical engineering positions with Mersin Makina Sanayi and Gökçay İnşaat respectively. Atilmis holds a degree in engineering from Mersin University.

Cyprus: Cyprus Cement has informed the Cyprus Stock Exchange that it has reduced its issued share capital by 14% to Euro50.9m from Euro59.2m. The company will return Euro8.26m in cash to investors.

Cyprus: Vassiliko Cement’s Vassiliko cement plant was the site of a tyre fire in an alternative fuel (AF) storage area on 11 June 2022. The Cyprus Mail newspaper has reported that the fire begun due to a mobile shredder malfunction. Enerco Energy Recovery operates the shredder at the 2.5Mt/yr cement plant. Local residents protested the incident at the site of the plant’s former quarry on 13 June 2022.

Cyprus: Eureka Shipping has ordered two cement carriers from Netherlands-based shipbuilder Royal Bodewes. This latest order represents the fourth and fifth ships in a series that Eureka Shipping, a joint venture between SMT Cement Ships and the CSL Group, has requested from the shipbuilder, according to Maritime Reporter & Engineering News. The new ships follow the Aalborg White, Kongsdal and Norden that were built in 2019. Each vessel has a capacity of 4252dwt. Eureka Shipping operates a fleet of 13 cement carriers with a range of 3000 – 23,000dwt.

Uzbekistan: Cyprus-based Lamanka Enterprises has acquired an 84% stake in Akhangarantsement. The value of the deal was US$52.5m, according to the Ria news agency. In early March 2021 Russia-based Eurocement put its 84% share in the Uzbek cement producer on sale. The company operates the second largest integrated plant in the country.