Sale of ASEC Minya Cement and ASEC Ready-Mix complete

ASEC Cement, a business unit of Qalaa Holdings, reached financial close on 22 November on the sale of its holdings in subsidiaries ASEC Minya Cement and ASEC Ready Mix Co. to Misr Cement Qena. The total consideration of the sale is c.EGP1 billion.

The sale will result in a total of c.EGP940 million in debt consolidated at the ASEC Cement consolidated level, as well a generating proceeds for Qalaa.

The sale was announced on 1 November, with the execution of the ASEC Cement transaction coming less than two weeks after Qalaa business unit Gozour signed a sale and purchase agreement to divest Rashidi El Mizan, putting Qalaa on track to deliver its strategy for FY2015.

“We are pleased to announce the sale process closed today [22 November], putting in place another cornerstone in our strategy to deleverage at both the holding and platform company levels,” said Qalaa Holdings Chairman and Founder Ahmed Heikal. “Both ASEC Minya and ASEC Ready Mix have established themselves as critical players in the vital Upper Egyptian market, and we are honored to have worked with an exceptional management team at each of them to build them into the companies they are today.”

At the time of sale, ASEC Cement held 46.5% of ASEC Minya Cement and 55% of ASEC Ready Mix. Qalaa and its subsidiary National Development and Trading Company (“NDT”) together own 70% of ASEC Cement.

CI Capital Investment Banking was Financial Advisor and Arab Legal Consultants (ALC) served as Legal Advisors to Qalaa on the transaction.

Adapted from press release by Rebecca Bowden

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/africa-middle-east/23112015/sale-of-asec-minya-cement-and-asec-ready-mix-complete-44/