PPC acquires three aggregate quarries

Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) has acquired three aggregate quarries from Quarries of Botswana.

The 50 million Pula (US$6.8 million) acquisition is part of the company’s southern African expansion strategy. The new quarries in Gaborone, Francistown and Selebi-Phikwe will help meet local market demand for aggregates. The aquisition will also make PPC’s Aggregates division the largest aggregate producer in Botswana.

PPC’s Executive for the Aggregates division, Riaan Redelinghuys, said: “Various alternatives were considered to increase PPC’s aggregates presence in Botswana. Both Gaborone and Francistown are forecast to be major growth nodes in Botswana and this was an obvious choice to develop our aggregates business further. Acquiring the assets of an existing business made more sense than embarking on a greenfield expansion”.

The investment will see PPC’s Aggregates division increase its total capacity from 3 million tpa to approximately 4 million tpa, and gain approximately 100 employees.

PPC CEO, Paul Stuiver, said: “We recently communicated to our investors that we are pursuing expansion opportunities in other parts of Africa, however this acquisition shows we are still considering any good opportunities to expand our local business.”

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/africa-middle-east/04102011/ppc_acquires_three_aggregate_quarries/