
Displaying items by tag: Italcementi
Matteo Rozzanigo appointed as new CEO of Italcementi’s FYM
22 October 2014Spain: Matteo Rozzanigo has been appointed as CEO of FYM, Italcementi's Spanish subsidiary. He is tasked with positioning the company in a cement market that is expected to stabilise and recover slowly after a prolonged crisis period. Rozzanigo replaces Mario Domenico Bracci, who held the post for the past three years and will now assume responsibilities for Ciments Maroc.
Rozzanigo holds an Industrial Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy and has been with Italcementi for 11 years. In the past five years, he was employed as Italcementi's director for the Near East, effectively managing the operations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Italcementi launches upgraded Devnya Cement plant
22 October 2014Bulgaria: Italcementi has launched its upgraded cement plant in Bulgaria, which is operated by its subsidiary, Devnya Cement. The upgrades will allow Italcementi to meet domestic demand and export demand from Eastern Europe.
"The new plant will enable us to respond to demand from the domestic market and from the neighbouring areas in Eastern Europe," said Italcementi Group chief executive officer Carlo Pesenti in a statement.
The revamp of the cement plant, located near the port of Varna in eastern Bulgaria, began in April 2012 and invovled an overall investment of more than Euro160m. Once the current test and commissioning stage has been completed on all the systems, the cement plant will be fully operational in early 2015. The new facility can produce around 4000t/day of clinker and about 1.5Mt/yr of cement.
The completion of the project will allow the group to consolidate its operations in Bulgaria, where it also runs the Vulkan grinding center in Dimitrovgrad, and boost its export capacity thanks to its proximity to the port of Varna West, which gives access to all the countries on the Black Sea and on the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Italcementi Group entered the Bulgarian market in 1998 with the acquisition of Devnya Cement, followed in 1999 by the acquisition of Vulkan Cement. In 2013, the Group reported revenue of Euro59m in Bulgaria.
Is Egypt even windy?
03 September 2014Announcements this week have highlighted the situation in the Egyptian cement industry, which has been bearing the brunt of increasing fuel scarcity for a while now. At first glance this appears bizzare in what is an oil-rich country but a government drive to make revenue from exports has constricted supply and led to a massive increase in fuel costs. Since the middle of 2012 Egyptian cement producers have faced a gradual decline in supplies, massive hikes in price due to the curtailment of subsidiaries and a scramble for 'alternative fuels'.... like coal!
While heavy fuel oil prices were on the rise as early as 2012, it is in 2014 that the cement industry has really begun to feel the brunt of supply cuts. January and February saw the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) cut its allocation of gas to cement producers by 35%, enough to significantly raise competition for the remaining allocation. By May 2013 this has resulted in interruptions to gas supply that closed some plants and slowed down many more. Producers were trumpeting coal as the big new 'alternative' fuel and conversion projects were announced in quick succession. Worse was to come. In June 2014 saw EGAS cut its supply to cement producers by a further 61%.
This relatively rapid turn around in fortunes has been highlighted by two announcements from the industry this week, both from the Italcementi subsidiary Suez Cement. Firstly, Suez updated the industry on its coal conversion project at its Kattameya plant. Both the timescale (completion by September 2015) and the price tag (US$23m) demonstrate the scale of the upset caused by the strangling of the gas supply. The cost implications of this investment and similar investments at three other Suez Cement plants are significant.
Secondly, Suez has announced that ItalGen (another Italcementi subsidiary) has secured a loan to construct a 200MW wind farm at Gabel El Zeit, near Hurghada, to supply its production sites with electricity. With a future target to produce 400MW (40% of Suez's electrical energy needs), this project (mooted since 2008) is a huge departure from established electrical energy sources in Egypt. It is an even larger project, estimated at US$220m. Assuming a ~US$25m price-tag for each of the four coal conversion projects, this brings Italcementi's total current Egypt 'energy stability spend' to a whopping US$320m. It is betting that the oil price trend is not going to reverse any time soon. As prices continue to rise it will be interesting to see what other solutions Egpytian cement producers come up with. The conversion of plants to take alternative or waste-derived fuels and the use of solar installations for plant electrical needs are other ways forward.
All the while, it is important to remember that Suez's projects (and those of other producers) will not be ready for several months at least. It is also important to remember that the same cement producers that are 'suffering' now have enjoyed the subsidies for many years. This makes casualties as the producers adjust to the new market realities a distinct possibility.
Suez Cement's Kattameya plant to use coal by September 2015
03 September 2014Egypt: The chairman of Suez Cement Group, Omar Mohanna, has announced that his company is planning to start transition processes to use coal in its 3Mt/yr capacity Kattameya cement plant by September 2015. The conversion is set to cost US$23.5m.
Italcementi’s ItalGen to produce 200MW from wind energy
02 September 2014Egypt: An official source in Egypt's Ministry of Electricity revealed that ItalGen, one of Italcementi Group affiliates, plans to build a 200MW wind power plant to increase its production capacity to 320MW. The plant will cost around US$220m. The project will be the first privately-built wind power plant to supply energy to plants of Suez Cement, an Italcementi subsidiary. Production capacity for the first phase would be 120MW, which would increase to 400MW in the future.
Italcementi completes a Euro500m capital increase
09 July 2014Italy: Italcementi has fully completed a capital increase worth Euro500m. Investors subscribed 103.6 million new shares within an issue approved by the board of directors on 6 March 2014. During the offer period, investors exercised rights for the subscription of 99.42% of the new shares for Euro497m. Under a subscription agreement, Italmobiliare spent Euro225m on the transaction.
France: Italcementi has reached the ownership threshold allowing for a squeeze-out of its French arm Ciments Français SA after a share purchase. With the latest acquisition of some 1.2m shares of Ciments Français, Italcementi has surpassed 95% of the share capital of the unit, while it had already secured 95% of the voting rights of the company in June 2014.
Italcementi's buyout bid for Ciments Français, which commenced on 13 June 2014, is worth Euro79.50/share, excluding dividend. Italcementi unveiled the final price of the offer for Ciments Français on 20 May 2014. It said at the time that it held 83.83% of the share capital and 91.03% of the voting rights of the unit and that its bid had a maximum total counter-value of some Euro464m.
Italcementi announced that it would initiate a squeeze-out procedure for the rest of the shares of Ciments Français at the offer price within three months from the completion of the bid. The move would be followed by the delisting of Ciments Français from NYSE-Euronext Paris.
Update: Italcementi has announced that the squeeze-out procedure for its French arm, Ciments Français, will commence on 15 July 2014 at a price of Euro79.50/share (net of all costs).
Currently Italcementi holds 97.73% of the share capital and 98.65% of the voting rights of Ciments Français and it intends to purchase the remaining 2.27% stake from minority shareholders. As agreed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) and in accordance with market practices, trading of Ciments Français shares have been suspended.
Central Asia cement roundup
02 July 2014A group of news stories from Central Asia and Azerbaijan this week present a good opportunity to look at the cement industry in this part of the world.
Uzbekistan
Eurocement has announced that it plans to build a 2.4Mt/yr cement plant near to Tashkent. Chinese contractors have been signed for the work in line with the Russia-based cement producer's other plant builds in 2014. Eurocement also operate a subsidiary in the country, the 1.6Mt/yr Akhangarancement cement plant, that reported a criminal investigation and financial audit following various misdemeanours in April 2014.
Also in April 2014 the Almalyk Mining-Metallurgical Combine (AMMC) proposed building a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant in the south of the country and then commissioning of a white cement plant in the central Jizzakh Province. Both the Eurocement and AMMC projects show that organisations are investing in the local market of the region's most populous country at around 30m.
Turkmenistan
In neighbouring Turkmenistan the TurkmenCement Production Association has issued a tender this week for the construction of a 1Mt/yr clinker plant in the central-south of the country in the Baharly District of the Akhal Region. If realised, the new plant will raise Turkemistan's cement production capacity to 4Mt/yr. Currently the country has three state-operated plants. The most recent, the 1.4Mt/yr Garlyk plant, was commissioned in February 2013.
Kazakhstan
An investor has stepped forward to finance the completion of the delayed Khantau cement plant in Zhambyl region in southern Kazakhstan. The 0.5Mt/yr plant was originally started in 2007 before being mothballed part-way through construction.
The reignition of this project follows a couple of stories from Kazakhstan including a report on testing at the HeidelbergCement Caspi cement plant in Mangistau region and the start of operation on Line 5 of Steppe Cement's Karaganda Cement. Kazakhstan has more western international cement producers, unlike the generally state-run companies in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. HeidelbergCement will join plants run by Italcementi and Vicat.
Azerbaijan
Finally, on the other side of the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijani local media has reported that cement production for the first half of 2014 has risen by 40% year-on-year to 1.1Mt. Following the opening of the Gazakh cement plant in mid-2013 the country has three cement plants with a combined cement production capacity of nearly 5Mt/yr.
Italcementi launches Ciments Français buyout offer
13 June 2014France: Italcementi has announced that it will target the minority holdings of Ciments Français with a buyout bid of Euro79.5/share, excluding dividend, from 13 June - 3 July 2014. The announcement follows the receipt of regulatory clearance.
Italcementi unveiled the final offer price on 20 May 2014. The company said at the time that it held 83.83% of the share capital and 91.03% of the voting rights of Ciments Français and that its bid had a maximum total counter-value of some Euro464m.
The move is in line with a drive to increase Italcementi's capital and streamline the group's structure. It will use the proceeds from a capital hike of up to Euro500m to bankroll the recommended offer. In the event that Italcementi builds a stake of at least 95% through the tender offer, it would initiate, within three months from the completion of the bid, a squeeze-out procedure for the rest of the shares at the offer price.
France: Italcementi has set the final price for the buyout offer targeting the minority holdings in its French arm Ciments Français SA at Euro79.50/share, excluding dividend.
Italcementi, which currently owns 83.83% of the share capital and 91.03% of the voting rights of Ciments Français, has increased the bid by Euro3.00/share from the Euro78.00/share announced on 6 March 2014, which included a dividend of Euro1.50/share.
The price was boosted after taking into consideration the assessment by Ciments Français and its advisor, FINEXSI, the revised growth projections of the group and recent industry developments. The bid, which is in line with a drive to increase Italcementi's capital and streamline the group's structure, is to be launched in June 2014 and has a maximum total counter-value of some Euro463.5m. Italcementi will use proceeds from a capital hike of up to Euro500m to bankroll the offer.
Ciments Français' board noted that the price is deemed fair by the advisor and is in the high-end of the established valuation range. Moreover, the move is seen to allow Ciments Français to conduct its operations more efficiently, the board added. In the event that Italcementi builds a stake of at least 95% through the tender offer, it would initiate, within three months from the completion of the bid, a squeeze-out procedure for the rest of the shares at the offer price.