South African cement maker Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) will buy a stake in Rwandas only cement maker, Cimerwa, for US$69.4mn
The deal forms part of PPC’s plan to boost the proportion of sales from outside its mainstay South African market to 50 per cent over the next five years.
PPC spent US$12mn in July for nearly a quarter of Ethiopia’s Habesha Cement. It said it has plans to double its stake and Habesha’s annual output capacity from 1.4mn tonnes.
PPC chief executive Paul Stuiver said, “Combined with our recent investment in Ethiopia, the Cimerwa transaction will increase PPC revenue outside of South Africa to more than 30 per cent by 2015-16.”
Stuiver added that the deal would also give the Johannesburg-based company a presence in the Rwandan market where demand for the building material has been estimated at 350,000 tonnes a year.
PPC said cement demand could reach one million tonnes in the next 10 years with the expanding economies in and around the central African country.
The cement company also revealed that it and other South African building firms were looking to northern Africa for growth.
