Asia Cement Corp, the nation’s No. 2 cement producer, yesterday said it aims to increase its market share in five major Chinese cities to above 30 percent through mergers and acquisitions.
The company plans to boost its market share in Wuhan, Hubei Province; Nanchang, Jiangxi Province; Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province; Chengdu, Sichuan Province; and Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, it said.
To achieve the goal, the firm is looking to acquire factories in Wuhan that can produce 568,000 tonnes of cement a year and factories in Nanchang that can turn out 240,000 tonnes a year, it said.
Asia Cement yesterday also maintained its target to boost combined annual capacity from its plants on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to 50 million tonnes by the end of 2016, from 40 million tonnes now, Douglas Hsu, chairman of Asia Cement and Far Eastern Group, said at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
He added that it would be easier to reach the goal through mergers.
Chang Tsai-hsiung, vice chairman of Asia Cement (China) Holdings Corp, a subsidiary of Asia Cement, said the company favors cement companies that have sound financials.
“We cannot acquire a company that will be a burden to Asia Cement,” Chang said.
Last quarter, the company registered a profit of NT$1.44 billion (US$47.97 million), or NT$0.47 per share, up from NT$1.22 billion, or NT$0.4 per share, the previous year, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company expects its profit this year to be higher than last year’s NT$6.81 billion, or NT$2.21 per share, aided by its acquisition of Sichuan Lanfeng Cement Co last month and higher product prices this year.
Shareholders also approved Asia Cement’s appointment of three independent board members — former Taipei mayor Huang Ta-chou, former Taiwan Stock Exchange chairman Schive Chi and former Financial Supervisory Commission chairman Gordon Chen.
“We need experts from different fields to improve the company’s operations,” Hsu said.
Shareholders also approved the company’s plan to pay a cash dividend of NT$1.80 per share and a stock dividend of 2 percent, based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$2.21 last year.
Commenting on the company’s operations in Vietnam, Hsu said he believed the anti-China sentiment would gradually cool down because Vietnam would not benefit from it.
Hsu added that he was willing to invest more in Taiwan instead of Vietnam if the government could allow the group to employ more foreign workers if it could not find enough local workers.
Asia Cement shares slid 0.38 percent to NT$39.50 yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which edged up 0.07 percent, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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