Displaying items by tag: Lafarge

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe, which recently merged with Holcim, is considering retaining its Lafarge brand in the country, according to All Africa.

A Lafarge spokesperson could not clearly indicate how the merger would affect the local brand, but suggested that Zimbabwe could remain with the Lafarge brand with a LafargeHolcim endorsement, in comment with the Financial Gazette's Companies and Markets,

"There will be three different approaches to the branding of the new countries. In countries with a balanced overlap, including cement operations in Bangladesh, Brazil, Morocco, Russia, Spain and the US, as well as for the trading business of the new group, LafargeHolcim will be introduced as the corporate brand, while existing Holcim and Lafarge brands on the market will remain and be complemented by the endorsement, 'a member of LafargeHolcim'," said the spokesperson. "In other countries with overlap of activities including France, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, either Lafarge or Holcim will become a corporate brand receiving the endorsement. In the countries without overlap, the existing brand will remain at all levels, also with the group endorsement." Zimbabwe has no overlap as Holcim did not have a presence in the country.

UK: Aggregate Industries' new cement division will be led by Joe Hudson as managing director of cement and concrete products. He joins Aggregate Industries from Lafarge, where he has worked in a number of key functional and operational roles since 2001. Hudson was heavily involved in preparations for the LafargeHolcim merger as group senior vice president for organisation and development at Lafarge and has experience of running a cement business, having previously worked as managing director / CEO for Lafarge Wapco Plc in Nigeria.

UK: Leicestershire-based Aggregate Industries, now part of the LafargeHolcim group, has taken ownership of Lafarge cement plants in Cauldon, Staffordshire and Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

The transfer of ownership of the two plants, along with a quarry at Cauldon Low and a cement terminal at Belfast Docks, was finalised on 20 July 2015 and also involves the transfer of 250 employees from the existing operations to Aggregate Industries. Originally owned by Holcim, Aggregate Industries said that becoming a cement producer and supplier 'is the final piece in the jigsaw,' providing a full range of construction materials to its customers.

"These are exciting times for Aggregate Industries. Along with the wider benefits of being part of the new LafargeHolcim group, the integration of cement production represents a significant strategic opportunity for us. We're now able to offer our customers the full range of construction materials and solutions, while maintaining our high levels of customer service," said Pat Ward, Aggregate Industries CEO. The business will continue with the Lafarge cement brand for its bulk cement products, although some of the bagged products will be renamed in due course.

Europe: Following the successful completion of the merger between Holcim and Lafarge, LafargeHolcim has today started trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich with the ticker symbol LHN and on Euronext in Paris, joining the Swiss Market Index (SMI) and the CAC 40 index (replacing Lafarge SA) respectively. LafargeHolcm had a total market capitalisation of around Euro39.4bn on 13 July 2015. Representatives of LafargeHolcim's senior management will attend the start of trading ceremony in Paris.

Zambia: According to TUMFWEKO, Lafarge Zambia has launched a depot in Solwezi to provide convenience of purchase for resellers and end users in North Western Province. The provincial minister, Dawson Kafwaya, congratulated Lafarge for opening a depot in Solwezi.

Kaziwe Kaulule, marketing director of Lafarge, said that Lafarge's goal was to provide the Zambian market with building materials and construction solutions by opening depots across the country. "Lafarge will continue to put in place systems and best ways of serving customers because customer satisfaction is what drives us. Our target is to make sure that we open a depot in every province to help our customers to easily access the products we offer," said Kaulule. He further assured the people that the depot would be operated according to the Lafarge Health and Safety Standards and that the company had put in place a strategy to help drivers achieve safe delivery of the product to the depot.

The Newly opened Lafarge Solwezi depot has a capacity to store 4500t of cement and will be the fifth Lafarge depot in Zambia among others held in Chipata, Livingstone, Ndola and Kasumbalesa.

Europe: Holcim Ltd and Lafarge SA have completed their global merger and have launched LafargeHolcim. The merger completion was dated 10 July 2015. All conditions for the completion of the merger were fulfilled following the successful completion of the public exchange offer and the issuance of new Holcim shares to Lafarge shareholders. Holcim's shareholders had previously approved the merger-related resolutions at an Extraordinary General Meeting on 8 May 2015.

With the completion of the merger, the mandate of the new board of directors and of the new executive committee with Eric Olsen as CEO has become effective. LafargeHolcim will also unveil its new logo and corporate identity. It has been designed to demonstrate that Holcim and Lafarge have united to form one company, expressing the leadership and strength of the new group.

"Today's closing is a historic event, not only for our two founding companies, but also for the industry as a whole. LafargeHolcim has a unique business portfolio, is the industry benchmark in research and devlopment and offers its customers the widest range of innovative and value-adding products, services and solutions, from smallholders to large enterprises and most complex projects," said Wolfgang Reitzle, co-chairman (statutory chairman) of the board of directors of LafargeHolcim.

"This new company is built on the rich history and culture of Lafarge and Holcim and its teams. The merger has not only resulted in a larger and more global company but brings about a unique set of complementary capabilities to capitalize on. Under the leadership of Eric Olsen, the new Group will foster a new operating model and create more value for all our stakeholders," said Bruno Lafont, co-chairman of the board of directors of LafargeHolcim.

The new LafargeHolcim shares will be traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange as well as the Euronext in Paris as of 14 July 2015. As announced, LafargeHolcim will re-open the public exchange offer to give the remaining Lafarge shareholders the opportunity to also tender their shares. The new offer period will start on 15 July 2015 for a duration of ten trading days until 28 July 2015.

Europe: The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) has published the final results of the public exchange offer initiated by Holcim Ltd for the shares of Lafarge SA.

Following the settlement-delivery of the offer expected to occur on 10 July 2015, Holcim Ltd will hold 252,230,673 Lafarge SA shares, representing 87.46% of the share capital and at least 83.94% of the voting rights of Lafarge SA based on the total number of shares outstanding as of 8 July 2015. In accordance with the AMF general regulations, the offer will be re-opened during at least 10 trading days according to a timetable that will be published by the AMF.

Holcim has announced that in connection with the successful public exchange offer and the expected closing of the merger with Lafarge, Bernard Fontana will step down from his position as CEO of Holcim Ltd with the completion of the merger. He will also resign from all mandates in all Holcim Group entities.

"It has been a pleasure and honour to work with remarkable and passionate people throughout the past years at Holcim. I wish the new company LafargeHolcim and the entire team all the very best for the future," said Fontana. The board of directors has thanked Fontana for his leadership and achievements for the group, and in particular for the successful implementation of the Holcim Leadership Journey.

Andreas Leu, currently responsible for the Americas, will also leave Holcim with effect from 1 August 2015. Bernard Terver, currently responsible for Africa and the Middle East as well as South Asia, will assume the position as head of India for LafargeHolcim from the date of the closure of the merger. In this capacity he will continue his mandates in the boards of Ambuja Cements and ACC Limited in India. Holcim's board of directors and the executive committee have thanked Leu for his contributions to the success of the group and wish him all the very best for his future.

Switzerland: According to Splash24/7, Italian ship-owners Giovanni and Vincenzo Romeo have ordered a new 6700t cement carrier with delivery scheduled for 2017. The ship-building contract was signed with Ningbo Xinle shipyard in China and is worth US$10 - 15m.

Originally from Naples, Italy, the Romeo family moved almost all of its shipping activities to Switzerland in 2010, where its Nova Marine Carriers shipping company is now based. Romeo Group historically has very close business relations with steel producers Duferco and cement producer Italcementi, but also regularly does business with other cement producers such as Lafarge, Holcim, Cemex and HeidelbergCement. Romeo's Nova Marine operates a fleet of some 40 bulk carriers, which includes five cement carriers and three self-unloaders.

Kenyan cement producers kicked off this week about Chinese cement imports for the Standard Gauge Railway Project in Kenya. Local producers, including ARM Cement and Lafarge, have asked the Kenya Railways Corporation to explain why the Chinese-backed project is importing cement. Project builders the China Rail & Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has imported 7000t of cement so far in 2015 according to Kenya Ports Authority data.

Project completion is planned for 2017 with a requirement of 1Mt of cement. If CRBC carried on this rate then, roughly, the project might only use 42,000t of imported cement if the import rate holds. This is less than 5% of the estimated requirement. However, cement imports increases into Kenya have stayed steady since 2012. Imports rose by 2000t from 2013 to 2014. CRBC's imports will stick out significantly in 2015.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data places Kenyan cement production at 5.8Mt in 2014, an increase of 16.3% from 5.1Mt in 2013. Production growth has been steadily building since the late 1990s with, more recently, a dip in the rate of growth in 2011 that has been 'corrected' as the growth has returned. Consumption has risen by 21.8% year-on-year to 5.2Mt in 2014 with imports also rising and exports dropping.

Imports for the railway project are duty free as ARM Cement Chief Executive Officer Pradeep Paunrana helpfully explained to Bloomberg. Producers have also recently upgraded their plants to specifically supply 52.5 grade cement to the project. Given this, it is unsurprising that local Kenyan producers, including ARM Cement and Lafarge, are complaining about this situation, especially given the increasingly pugnacious African response to foreign imports led by Dangote and companies in South Africa. Both ARM and Lafarge hold integrated plants and grinding plants in Nairobi and Mombasa. This is the route of the new railway line.

The backdrop to this is that the Chinese cement industry is struggling at home as it adjusts to lower construction rates and reduced cement production growth. Profits made by the Chinese cement industry fell by 67.6% year-on-year to US$521m for the first quarter of 2015, according to National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) statistics. At the same time the Shanghai Composite, China's principal stock market, has seen the value of its shares fall by 30% since June.

Although it is unclear where the cement imports in this particular row are coming from, informal or formal business links between large state controlled corporations such as a China's major cement producers will always be questioned by competitors outside of China for both genuine issues of competitiveness and simple attempts to claw more profit. If the Chinese cement producers are sufficiently spooked or they really start to lose money then what is to stop it asking a sister company building a large infrastructure project abroad to offer it some help? Or it might consider asking the Chinese bank providing 90% of the financing towards the US$3.8bn infrastructure project to force the Kenyan government to offer more concessions to foreign firms. Meanwhile one counter argument goes that Kenya has a growing construction market with a giant infrastructure project that may unlock the region's long-simmering low cement consumption per capita boom. The Kenyan government may face some difficult decisions ahead.

Europe: The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) has published the interim results of the public exchange offer initiated by Holcim Ltd for the shares of Lafarge SA.

As of 7 July 2015, a total of 252,230,673 shares, representing 87.46% of the share capital and at least 81.47% of the voting rights of Lafarge SA, have been tendered. The success of the offer was subject to the condition that a minimum acceptance threshold of 66.6% of Lafarge's share capital or voting rights be reached by Holcim. The final results will be published by the AMF on 9 July 2015. According to the press release, the result reflects the confidence of shareholders in the future company.

The settlement-delivery of the new shares to shareholders having tendered their Lafarge SA shares is scheduled for 13 July 2015.