Oman’s one of the leading cement manufacturers Raysut Cement Company is planning to acquire ARM Cement of Kenya, a move that is in line with Raysut’s strategy to expand businesses in East and Central Africa
ARM Cement, which is a producer and major supplier of cement in Kenya and Africa in general, went into administration with a debt of more than US$140mn. Raysut has expressed its interest to the administrators to acquire the company, which is estimated to be worth US$100mn.
The acquisition is set to complement Raysut’s revised strategy to manufacture clinker in proximity to the markets it supplies to in East Africa.
Raysut Cement is one of the major clinker suppliers to the East African region and the ARM assets are seen to fit well with its plans for East Africa. In the last quarter, the company supplied more than 300,000 tonnes of clinker to Kenya and Tanzania from its home plant at Salalah, Oman.
According to industry reports, Joey Ghose, 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 has been approved at a board meeting with support from all stakeholders of the company including the government representatives.
In addition to this, Raysut cement is 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. Furthermore, the company is also planning to build a cement plant in Somalia, with a capacity of one million tonne per annum. The construction is scheduled to start by January 2019. The group is also building a one-million-ton plant in Georgia, near Tbilisi.
