Displaying items by tag: rights
France/Middle East: The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, has upheld Lafarge’s indictment on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity, Reuters has reported. A lower court previously concluded that the company had paid US$15.5m to armed groups in the Middle East, including ISIS, via its subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria. In its latest ruling, the Court of Cassation quashed another charge of endangering the lives of employees, on grounds that Lafarge’s foreign labour relations are not subject to French law. The group had reportedly not appealed a further charge of financing a terrorist enterprise.
Read the latest on Lafarge’s on-going trials in this week’s Global Cement analysis.
PPC considers US$68.7m rights offer
14 August 2020South Africa: PPC has said that it may issue a rights offer for US$68.7m-worth of shares in order to raise funds to ‘repay and restructure debt locally and in other African markets, and to refinance after the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.’ Pretoria News has reported that PPC has forecasted a 20% year-on-year drop in earnings in the year to 31 March 2020 due to ‘a slump in domestic demand and an influx of cheaper Chinese imports, even prior to lockdown.’
Zimbabwe: Plans to build a cement plant in Zvishavane by Chinese investors have been challenged as it has emerged that the mining rights in the area belong to Shabanie Mashaba Mines (SMM). This may delay the project as SMM is still the subject of an ownership dispute between the government and South African-based businessman Mutumwa Mawere.
The project was intended to be built 30km from the Zvishavane along the Zvishavane-Mbalabala road, according to local press. It was part of the deals made with China after President Robert Mugabe's visit to China in 2014 as well as negotiations between the Joint Zimbabwe-China Permanent Commission.