PPC considers AfriSam’s non-binding proposal
PPC SAID yesterday that its board continued to consider the indicative non-binding proposal from AfriSam Group for a merger between the two cement producers.
The listed cement and lime producer said it would make a further announcement in due course once its board had concluded the consideration process.
The Public Investment Corporation, the managers of the Government Employees Pension Fund, holds 12.57 percent of PPC we all need to do as much as we possibly can to become as efficient as we can.
“This will help reduce the occurrences of load shedding tremendously because Eskom’s systems are under immense strain in peak times. By cutting our peak time use, we can allow that electricity to be distributed elsewhere,” he said.
Ottermann believed industry in South Africa was at the and 66 percent of AfriSam.
Bheki Sibiya, PPC chairman, told Business Report in January that the two cement producers were likely to approach the Competition Commission for an indication of the likelihood of a proposed merger being approved before exploring in detail the possibility of concluding a transaction.
Former PPC chief executive Ketso Gordhan said in December, when AfriSam made the merger proposal, that it could be a good deal for PPC at the right relative leading edge of the energy fight, but more out of necessity than anything else.
“Since 2008, in my experience, South African industry has been carrying the torch in terms of handling electricity consumption on a national level. It’s just that now, it is not simply a nice to have, it is an absolute business imperative,” he said.
PPC confirmed last year it valuation and could be approved by the competition authorities if some AfriSam assets were sold separately.
He said the combined market share of the merged companies would be about 50 percent and suspected AfriSam’s Mafikeng plant would have to be sold to reduce the combined market share of the merged business to below 40 percent to satisfy the competition authorities.
PPC shares fell 1.10 percent to close at R18 yesterday. – Roy Cokayne had concluded an agreement to source waste tyres from the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa for use at its De Hoek cement factory in Piketburg and was investigating the possibility of using waste tyres in some of its other plants.
Azola Lowan, the executive for investor relations and strategy at PPC, said in November that the use of the waste tyres in the kilns at the De Hoek factory would be introduced from the middle of this year and indications were that the tyres could replace 10 percent of its coal usage. He said PPC had already commissioned the use of carbonaceous spent pot liner, a waste material from the aluminium industry, at its Dwaalboom cement factory in Limpopo that replaced about 5 percent of its coal.