PPC’s Zimbabwe business flourishes

The company says the reorganised and strengthened executive committee ( exco) team announced on January 18 now has the right blend of global and local cement industry experience, institutional and technical knowledge, and a renewed energy to drive the needed improvements at the company’s operational level.

The exco is conducting a comprehensive review to ensure PPC is agile, well- managed and resilient in what PPC said is a challenging South African macroeconomic context.

The key focus areas include the optimisation of structure, processes and controls; the refocusing of the business on contribution margin through an assessment of the South African businesses commercial footprint; and the reduction in fixed operational and overhead costs.

These will require improvements to the internal management reporting systems to better support PPC’s commercial and operational decisionmaking.

With this in mind, the board has targeted achieving a sustainable return on capital for its South Africa and Botswana business in the medium term.

PPC adds that it intends to increase engagement with regulators and other key market stakeholders to further develop a more sustainable cement industry in South Africa through creating a level playing field among local, regional and international competitors on key issues such as imported cement and low- quality standard products.

With the South African gross debt to Ebitda ratio expected to be well below the stated optimal level, PPC notes that it intends to continue to return cash to shareholders through dividends or the implementation of a share repurchase programme in the absence of any value- enhancing corporate activity.

Mining Weekly