Displaying items by tag: Stake

Bolivia: Samuel Doria Medina, leader of the Unidad Nacional party, has sold his controlling shares of Soboce (Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento). Medina made the announcement after meeting with shareholders and officially listing the sale on the Bolivian stock exchange. Soboce was acquired by the Peru-based Holding Cementero, which has interests in the dairy, food distribution and service sectors. Prior to the full acquisition, Holding Cementero had an existing 49% stake in Soboce.

"I sold Soboce to completely devote myself to the people of Bolivia. In light of the October election results, which made my party the leading opposition force, I felt this was necessary," said Medina. He intends to donate some of the proceeds of the sale to charity.

Soboce was founded in 1925 in Viacha, La Paz. Medina took control of the firm in 1987, building the company from 200 employees to over 10,000.

Russia: Topkinsky Cement, a part of Siberian Cement, has received the Federal Antimonopoly Service's (FAS) permission to purchase a 24.92% voting stake in Iskitimtsement. Siberian Cement's stake will therefore grow to 49.899%. In February 2013 the FAS blocked Sibirsky Cement from acquiring a 90% stake of Iskitimtsement's voting shares.

Iskitimtsement posted a revenue of Euro85m and a net profit of Euro11m in 2013 compared to a revenue of Euro77m and a net profit of Euro16m in 2012. The cement plant holds 17% of the Siberian Federal District's cement market.

India: Chettinad Cement Corporation has raised its stake in Anjani Portland Cement to 66.08% by acquiring a 17.08% stake through an open offer. The offer was triggered by Chettinad Cement entering into a share purchase agreement in March 2014 to acquire up to 61.74% holding from the promoters of Anjani Portland for US$11.7m.

According to Chettinad Cement, the agreement has built-in flexibility to ensure that its holding is limited to 75%, the maximum allowed for a firm to remain listed. As the open offer attracted a good response, Chettinad Cement had limited its share purchase from the promoters to 49%. Chettinad Cement has to pay US$4.92m to buy shares from the promoters and an additional US$3.23m to fund the open offer. The acquisition will help Chettinad Cement, which has a presence predominantly in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, to enter Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

India: Competition regulator the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given its approval to the proposed 14% stake sale by Lafarge of its subsidiary Lafarge India to Baring Private Equity Asia, saying that the deal will not adversely effect competition in the country.

"The combination is not likely to have appreciable adverse effect on competition in India and therefore, the Commission hereby approves the combination under... the (Competition) Act," said the CCI in its order on 26 June 2013.

According to the regulator the deal will not cause adverse competition concerns as neither Paris Cement nor Baring or any of its portfolio companies is engaged in the business of manufacturing cement in India. Lafarge and Baring entered their sale agreement on 14 May 2013, which stated that certain actions of Lafarge India cannot be taken without the prior written consent of Paris Cement Investment Holdings.

Philippines: San Miguel Corporation has purchased a 35% stake in Northern Cement Corporation for US$72.1m and plans to finance the aggressive expansion of the company. San Miguel president Ramon Ang said the conglomerate would spend US$750m for the construction of new cement plants for Northern Cement, a company that is controlled by San Miguel chairman Eduardo Cojuangco.

Ang, who is also the chief of operations of San Miguel, said the company plans to expand the operation of Northern Cement by building three more plants at a cost of US$250m each.

Ang said that one plant would be built in the existing site in Pangasinan, another in Southern Luzon and a third in Cebu. Each plant will have a capacity of 2Mt/yr.

"All of these projects will happen within 2013 and are likely to be completed within two years," said Ang. "Eventually, San Miguel wants to build more plants to become the dominant cement manufacturing company in the Philippines." He added that Northern Cement aims to secure at least a 30% share of the cement market, which had 'huge potential.' "The revenue potential for each 2Mt/yr plant is estimated at US$200m/yr," he said.

India: Lafarge has signed an agreement to sell a 14% minority stake in its Indian subsidiary, Lafarge India, for Euro200m to Baring Private Equity Asia. The transaction, which is subject to the approval of local regulatory authorities, is intended to accelerate Lafarge's growth plans in India in all its product lines, inlcuding cement, aggregates and concrete.

Bolivia/Peru: The Mexican cement maker Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) has announced that it has finalised the sale of its 47% stake in Bolivian peer Sociedad Boliviana de Cementos (Soboce) to a unit of a major Peruvian conglomerate. GCC said that its stake in Bolivia's top cement maker would go to Consorcio Cementero del Sur, S.A., a subsidiary of the agroindustrial Grupo Gloria. It gave no details regarding the value of the deal.

"Proceeds from the transaction will be used primarily for debt reduction, in line with the company's goal of improving its financial profile and strengthening its core businesses in the US and Mexico," said GCC in a statement.

Previously, in April 2011, a judge in Bolivia ordered a freeze on assets held by Soboce, 53% of which is owned by a group controlled by Samuel Doria Medina, who is a political rival of the country's President Evo Morales.

France/Italy/Turkey: French cement maker Ciments Français has said that it will sell its 51% stake in Turkish Afyon Çimento Sanayi TAS. The French company, part of the Italcementi group, has mandated Mediobanca to be its financial adviser in assessing and carrying out the potential sale of its stake.

In February 2011 Ciments Français started divesting assets in Turkey with the sale of Set Group Holding to diversified Turkish group Limak Holding. After the latest strategic move in Turkey, Mediobanca does not rule out that Italcementi may leave markets on which it has minor presence, such as China, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.

Spain: French cement group Lafarge has announced that it has acquired a 35% stake in the cement plant of Spanish construction and property development group Lubasa at the port of Castellon.

Under the agreement, the facility will receive clinker supplies from Lafarge cement plants. The company declined to reveal financial details of the deal.