PPC and AfriSam enter merger talks
Published by Jonathan Rowland,
Editor
World Cement,
South Africa-based cement maker, PPC, has restarted talks with its nearest rival, AfriSam, on a potential merger, two years after PPC walked away from talks of a possible combining of the two companies.
“We think that consolidation in the industry will start to happen and we’ve got to make a choice as to whether we want to be the architects and lead that [or] let it happen around us and not be sure of the outcome,” PPC’s CEO Darryl Castle told Reuters following the example.
AfriSam first proposed a merger in 2014, after infighting between PPC’s board and former CEO had seen its share price tumble.
The combined company will be “well placed to have the balance sheet capabilities to develop as a major African cement producer, given its complementary production assets in six African countries outside of South Africa,” PPC said in an announcement to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
AfriSam has operations in Lesotho and Swaziland, as well as South Africa. Meanwhile, PPC operates in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Rwanda, and is currently building plants in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia, in addition to its operations in South Africa – a market in which a combined entity would hold a 60% market share.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/africa-middle-east/14022017/ppc-and-afrisam-enter-merger-talks/
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