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Misr Cement Qena acquires ASEC companies affiliated to Qalaa Holding Qalaa's strategy in 2015 aims to exit but still pump investments in other sectors, says Heikal
Misr Cement Qena acquired ASEC Minya Cement and ASEC Ready Mix affiliated to Qalaa Holding for EGP 1bn, according to a press release by Qalaa Holding Sunday. Qalaa Holding said conducting the deal will work on reducing the debts on the level of the company and its subsidiaries by about EGP 940m. The company did not rule out conducting other exiting operations if needed. Misr Cement Qena owns about 14% of the total ASEC Minya Cement shares and about 55% of ASEC Ready Mix shares. Qalaa Holdings Chairman and Founder Ahmed Heikal expressed his pleasure about conducting the selling operation within the plan of reducing the debts. He praised the success of ASEC Minya Cement and ASEC Ready Mix in building prominent industrial entities in the governorates of Upper Egypt and said he is honoured to have worked with professional management in both companies on developing their competitive positions in a short period of time. Qalaa Holding's strategy in 2015 aims to reduce debts by exiting from some companies, such as El-Rashidi El-Mizan, and increase its investments in some major subsidiaries. The commercial operation of ASEC Minya Cement started in August 2013 with a production capacity of 2m tonnes annually. The operations of ASEC Ready Mix started in 2014 with a capacity of 382,000 cubic metres, where the company operates six plants for producing and distributing ready-mixed concrete. Qalaa Holding, one of the largest investment companies in Egypt, manages assets worth $9.5bn, among which are dozens of companies existing mainly in Egypt and in East and North Africa. The present capital of Misr Cement Qena amounts to EGP 298.8m, distributed on 29.9m stocks, with a nominal value of EGP 10m. ASEC Cement held 46.5% of ASEC Minya Cement and 55% of ASEC Ready Mix at its time of sale. Qalaa and its affiliated company National Development and Trading Company (NDT) together have 70% of ASEC Cement. CI Capital Investment Banking was the financial advisor and Arab Legal Consultants (ALC) was the legal advisor of Qalaa in the selling operation.
