Daily Times

KARACHI: The Kohat Cement Company Limited has decided to join the race to acquire stakes in Dewan Cement Limited, becoming the fourth interested party to take part in the bidding process.

Earlier, Lucky Cement, a Chinese investor and Fecto Cement have shown interest in acquiring stakes in Dewan Cement Limited.

According to a company notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, the board of directors (BoDs) at Kohatr Cement Limited has decided to participate in the bidding of sale of assets of Dewan Cement (north plant).

‘The BoDs of Kohat Cement Company Limited in its meeting held on Friday has decided to participate in the bidding process for the purchase of North Cement Plant and its related assets from Dewan Cement Limited, ” said Kohat Cement Company Secretary Khurram Shahzad.

In this regard, BoDs has authorised the management to conduct due diligence, work out assets valuations and to appoint advisors/consultants to the said transaction, added Shahzad

Fecto Cement announced its interest to participate in the bidding of sale of assets of Dewan Cement (north plant) this week while Lucky Cement announced in last week that it is considering to initiate due diligence to evaluate potential acquisition of north plant of Dewan Cement which is located in Hattar, district Haripur, Kyber PakhtunKhwa.

Dewan Cement announced that a Chinese investor had shown interest in due diligence to acquire stake in the company.

Cement industry is booming lately in Pakistan and almost all big manufacturers have announced expansion plans. The Cement industry posted an overall growth of 8.76 percent in dispatches for the quarter July – September, 2016 as compared to the previous one. The increase in the domestic dispatches was 9.50 percent and the increase in exports was 5.43 percent.

Analysts say greater outlay of public sector development projects (PSDP) and large scale infrastructure development projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will continue to boost the demand of cement in the future which also includes sizeable private housing schemes.

Kohat Cement is current on its all debt obligations and under its ongoing projects new cement mill with the capacity of 105 tph is expected to be operational by December, 2017.