Displaying items by tag: corporate

Brazil: Votorantim Energia and Canada-based CPP Investments have announced the consolidation of their Brazilian energy assets in a new jointly owned renewable energy platform called VTRM. The new company's assets will reach 3.3GW in capacity by October 2022, consisting of 2.3GW in hydroelectric power and 1.0GW in wind power. Its planned projects, including hydroelectric, solar and hybrid power plants, will increase its capacity by 58% to 5.2GW.Its existing assets sold 2.6GW of electricity in 2020. The partners said that the new company will also be well-positioned for future growth, including the acquisition of operational assets and those in planning or under construction. CPP Investment will inject and additional US$269m into the venture following the conclusion of the deal.

As part of the restructuring, Votorantim Energia will cease to manage Votorantim's cement subsidiary Votorantim Cimentos' dedicated energy assets. The cement producer will then incorporate these into its own operations. This will enable Votorantim Energia to focus on energy generation for sale.

Group president João Schmidt said that the consolidation reflects the major role that energy business will play in the company's future. He said "Globally, there is a growing urgency around renewable energy and the energy transition. Alongside a partner like CPP Investments, which has shared our long-term views on energy since 2017, we are ready to accelerate our role in the sector." He added "Through the assets consolidation into a single platform, Votorantim and CPP Investments will share in a new cycle of growth and value generation together."

France: Ciments Calcia says that it will move into its new headquarters in La Défense, Hauts-de-Seine department, in early 2022. The Les Echos newspaper has reported that the Covid-19 pandemic previously delayed the move, which the company announced in late 2019. It will leave ‘part of its services’ at its existing Guerville, Yvelines department. Some staff will work at the new headquarters ‘two or three days a week’ due to the benefits of remote working.

Australia: US-based Carbon Direct has bought a 7% stake in Calix. Reuters News has reported the value of the stake as US$17.7m. Reuters News has reported that Calix plans to use the proceeds to scale up its carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, as demonstrated at the LEILAC and LEILAC 2 installations at Lixhe, Belgium, and Hanover, Germany.

Calix chief executive officer Phil Hodgson said "As the world puts emissions trading schemes in place, CCS does start to look like a multibillion dollar addressable market.”

Mexico: Cemex has launched a sustainability-linked financing framework. It says that it is the ‘most comprehensive’ such framework in the building materials sector. The framework further aligns Cemex’s corporate sustainability commitments to its financing strategy, as part of its ‘Future in Action’ program. It establishes Cemex’s guiding principles when issuing new sustainability-linked financing instruments, including public bonds, private placements, loans, derivatives, working capital solutions and other financing instruments. Sustainalytics, an independent company that specialises in providing environmental, social and corporate governance research, ratings and data to institutional investors and companies, validated the framework’s alignment with the Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles, the International Capital Market Association’s Climate Transition Finance Handbook and the Loan Market Association’s Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles.

“Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time, and we will continue to address it as a fundamental component of our business strategy,” said Maher Al-Haffar, Cemex's chief financial officer. “Cemex is committed to increasing the role sustainable finance plays in its capital structure by potentially linking the cost of financial instruments to the achievement of targets, directly aligning our corporate finance strategy to sustainability commitments and further contributing to a low-carbon future.”

Cemex has included three key performance indicators in the framework: net CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious product, clean electricity consumption and alternative fuels rate. All of them were qualified by Sustainalytics and deemed aligned with the company’s climate action strategy. Cemex currently has a 2030 target of reaching below 475kg/t of CO₂ for cementitious products.

Nepal: Arghakhachi Cement has announced that it will issue general shares in an initial public offering (IPO) in the 2023 financial year. The exact date of the IPO is to be released later, according to the Republica newspaper. Separately, the cement producer has received certification from the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology to produce 43 grade Ordinary Portland Cement.

Bahrain: Saudi Arabia-based Saudi Cement has increased its share in its Bahraini subsidiary United Cement Company (UCC) by 37% to 100%. The purchase of additional shares cost it around US$7.5m in May 2021. UCC is an importer and distributor of bulk cement. It operates a marine terminal and was founded in 1999.

Colombia: Argos North America has taken out a US$300m loan where the interest rate is linked to CO₂ emission reduction indicators and the increase in the percentage of women in leadership positions. It will be used to prepay an existing syndicated loan. The loan has been taken out from BNP Paribas Securities, Natixis, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and the Bank of Nova Scotia. This loan is the first linked to environmental, social and corporate governance performance that Argos has signed with international banks.

Egypt: France-based Vicat raised a case against the Egyptian government with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in late June 2021. It concerns its cement production business. Reporting by the Qatar-based New Arab newspaper alleges that the cement producer was forced to reduce its shares in its subsidiary Sinai Cement due to a law stopping foreign ownership of companies operating in the Sinai Peninsula on the basis of security grounds. It reports that Vicat has reduced its shares in its subsidiary to 42% from 56% previously.

Vicat confirmed in its financial report for 2020 that it was in the process of taking legal action locally on the matter of foreign ownership in the Sinai region. It added that an investment of around Euro35m in Sinai Cement had been delayed due to administrative approval time. In July 2021, Tamer Magdy, the country manager for Sinai Cement, told local press that Vicat was keen to continue investing in the market.

Philippines: Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement has underwritten a US$250m capital increase for its subsidiary Taiheiyo Cement Philippines. Nikkei Business Trends News has reported that the company has scheduled six payments between July 2021 and January 2024. The funding will increase Taiheiyo Cement Philippines’ total capital to US$291m.

India: Nuvoco Vistas has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to launch an initial public offering (IPO) of shares worth US$670m. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the offering will consist of a US$201m issuance of shares and a US$469m offer for sale. Around US$180m of the funds will be used to reduce the group’s debts and the remainder will be used for general corporate purposes.