Displaying items by tag: Sale

Belgium: HeidelbergCement has completed the sale of its operations in Belgium, primarily consisting of Italcementi’s subsidiary Compagnie des Ciments Belges (CCB) to an affiliate of Cementir Holding. The European Commission has approved the agreement.

“With the disposal of the Belgium assets we fulfill the obligation of the European Commission and improve the net financial position of HeidelbergCement after the acquisition of Italcementi,” said Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement.

HeidelbergCement and Cementir Holding announced the sale on 25 July 2016. The transaction has an enterprise value of Euro312m on a cash and debt-free basis.

India: The East Singhbhum district administration has asked for guidelines from the government of Jharkhand regarding the purchase of the Jojobera cement plant by Nirma from Lafarge India. There are no provisions for transfers of leased land to any third party without the prior approval of the state government with relation to agreements struck by Tata Steel, the plants previous owner, said East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amit Kumar to the Hindustan Times.

"We are seeking state government's guideline on action to be taken over the reported transfer of management and bank accounts of Jojobera Plant here by Lafarge Holcim to Nirma Limited even though they are yet to respond to our notices from July 2016," said Kumar.

Lafarge India has said that the transfer of management and accounts for the Jojobera plant was completed on 6 -7 October 2016 following approval by the Competition Commission of India for the sale. It agreed to sell five cement plants to Nirma for US$1.4bn in July 2016.

Chile: LafargeHolcim has signed an agreement with Inversiones Caburga, part of the Hurtado Vicuña Group, to sell its 54.3% stake in Cemento Polpaico for US$225m. The transaction will be carried out by a public tender offer by Inversiones Caburga to all shareholders of Cemento Polpaico.

Cemento Polpaico operates one integrated plant and two grinding plants with an annual cement capacity of 2.3Mt/yr. The company is also a leading ready-mix concrete producer operating 25 plants and produces aggregates. The launch of the public tender offer is subject to the approval of the Chilean competition authorities, which is expected for the first half of 2017. Following the successful completion LafargeHolcim would exit Chile completely.

Mexico: Cemex wants to sell its 23% stake in Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua through a secondary public offering. Cemex has asked the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, Mexico's banking and securities regulator (CNBV), to approve the planned transaction, under which the Mexican building materials company will offer the shares to domestic and foreign investors in a concurrent private placement. The sale will be part of Cemex’s previously announced asset disposal plan. The company wants to sell up to US$2bn worth of assets to reduce its debts.

US: Cemex and Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) have amended the terms of a sale of assets to GCC previously announced in early May 2016. The assets being sold by an affiliate of Cemex to an affiliate of GCC in the US have changed and mainly consist of Cemex’s cement plant in Odessa, Texas, two cement terminals and the building materials business in El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Cemex’s cement plant in Lyons, Colorado and cement terminal in Florence, Colorado are no longer part of the assets being sold to GCC. Upon closing of this transaction GCC will pay Cemex US$306m.

The sale is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from the US competition authorities and GCC’s shareholders, as well as GCC obtaining financing to purchase the assets. The deal is expected to be completed before the end of 2016.

India: Reliance Infrastructure has completed the sale of its 100% shareholding in Reliance Cement to Birla Corporation, part of MP Birla Group. The US$715m deal, valued at US$140/t of cement production capacity, was announced in February 2016. The transaction has now completed following the transfer of shares and receipt of sale consideration. Proceeds of the sale will be used by Reliance Infrastructure to pay off its debts.

China: LafargeHolcim has signed a framework agreement with Tianjin Circle Enterprise Management Center (Tianjin Circle) to sell a controlling stake in Sichuan Shuangma Cement (Shuangma) for Euro469m. The multinational cement producer owns 55.93% of Shuangma. The sale is subject to approval from the shareholders of Shuangma and the completion of a mandatory offer for the shares of minority shareholders of Shuangma, as well as normal regulatory approval. The acquisition is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tianjin Circle has agreed an option to purchase the remaining shares in Shuangma from LafargeHolcim in 2018 for Euro147m. LafargeHolcim has also agreed an option to buy Shuangma’s cement assets, within a certain period after the sale closes, for around Euro358m. On this basis, the expected immediate impact on LafargeHolcim net debt of these agreements would have been a reduction of Euro112m.

Sichuan Shuangma is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and operates four integrated cement plants with a production capacity of 11Mt/yr.

Sweden: Sandvik has signed an agreement to divest its Mining Systems operations to the private equity company CoBe Capital. Sandvik will maintain ownership of on-going projects that are close to completion. The deal is expected to complete during the fourth quarter of 2016. No purchase price has been disclosed.

“Divesting the Mining Systems is an important step in consolidating Sandvik to its core operations, which for Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology is high technology mining equipment and aftermarket offerings,” said Bjorn Rosengren, president and CEO of Sandvik.

Mining Systems is a supplier of design and engineering of material handling systems for the mining industry. In 2015 the Mining Systems operations, with 1100 employees, had annual sales of Euro527m representing 6% of Sandvik Group revenues.

Vietnam: The Ministry of Construction is planning to sell its stake in Vicem through an initial public offering in the fourth quarter of 2016. The cement producer has said previously that the state is planning to reduce its holding to 51%. Investors from Indonesia and Thailand have expressed interest in acquiring stakes in Vicem, according to the Dau Tu newspaper.

Vicem, previously known as the Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation, has stakes in 31 companies, mostly cement producers and distributors. Its gross profit reportedly doubled last year to US$105.2m in 2015. It currently controls 34% of the market in Vietnam.

Belgium/US: HeidelbergCement has made a shortlist of potential bidders for assets in Belgium and the US that should be divested as part of its acquisition of Italcementi, according to Bloomberg. Bidders for Italcementi’s Belgian business include Turkey’s Çimsa Çimento and Italy’s Cementir Holding. The business are valued at around US$400m. Bidders for Italcementi’s US assets include Summit Materials and CRH. This business are valued at around US$600m according to sources quoted by Bloomberg. All shortlisted bidders will face a due diligence process.