Company hopes to raise capacity to 20 mn tonne by 2022
MUSCAT/KENYA: Raysut Cement Company, Oman’s largest cement manufacturer, is eyeing acquiring ARM Cement of Kenya as part of the company’s aggressive strategy to expand in East and Central Africa, according to an official statement from the company.
ARM Cement, a producer and major supplier of cement in Kenya and Africa in general, recently went into administration with a debt of over$140 million and Raysut has expressed its interest to the administrators to acquire the company, according to the statement.
The acquisition is estimated to be valued at over$100 million. The acquisition will complement Raysut’s revised strategy to manufacture clinker in proximity to the markets it supplies to in East Africa.
Raysut Cement is already in the process of setting up a grinding unit in Somaliland and Mogadishu, Somalia with a Dubai-based partner. The company is also in advanced discussions to acquire various cement producers in Uganda and Djibouti.
Plans are also afoot to build a one-million-tonne per annum cement plant in Berbera, Somalia and the construction work could start as early as January 2019. Raysut is also in advanced negotiations with Kampala Cement, says the company note.
Raysut Cement is one of the major clinker suppliers to the East African region, and the ARM assets will fit very well with its plans for East Africa where in the last quarter alone it supplied over 300,000 tonnes of clinker from its home plant at Salalah, Oman to Kenya and Tanzania.
According to industry reports, Joey Ghose (seen in the picture), the Group CEO of Raysut Cement had presented a five- year strategy to grow Raysut Cement into a 20-million-tonne company by 2022.
The proposal of the Kenyan-born Ghose based in Oman has been approved at a recent board meeting with significant support from all stakeholders of the company, including the government representatives. The group is also building a one million tonne plant in Georgia, near Tbilisi.
