Businessman Ramon Ang said Monday he is seriously looking at acquiring the cement plants of Lafarge Republic Inc., whose French parent Lafarge S.A. is merging with Holcim Ltd. of Switzerland.
Ang did not say if San Miguel or Eagle Cement Corp. was the one interested in acquiring Lafarge’s assets in the Philippines.“We are looking at it. We are seriously looking at it. It will be a big transaction if ever,” Ang, president of San Miguel Corp. and chairman of Eagle Cement Corp., said in an interview at the sidelines of the listing ceremony for Petron Corp.’s P10-billion preferred shares at the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Lafarge Republic plans to sell six assets, including FR Cement in Teresa, Rizal; Fortune Cement in Taisan, Batangas; Continental Cement and Republic Cement in Norzagaray, Bulacan; a cement company in Cebu, formerly known as Durano Cement; and Asturias Cement also in Cebu.
Lafarge Republic’s decision to sell its cement assets is part of the planned merger between Holcim Ltd. and Lafarge S.A.
Lafarge Republic earlier said it planned to sell its other assets, including Lafarge Iligan Inc., Lafarge Mindanao Inc. and Lafarge Republic Aggregates Inc., and Star Terminal at the Harbour Centre in Manila to Holcim Philippines Inc.
Holcim Philippines said the company would conduct a financial and technical study on the assets before finalizing the acquisition plans.
The study will be completed by the middle of 2015.
San Miguel Corp. ventured into cement business with the P3-billion acquisition of 35 percent of Northern Cement Corp., a company personally owned by San Miguel chairman and chief executive Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. last year.
Meanwhile, San Miguel Corp. said it was no longer in the list of qualified bidders for British snacks maker United Biscuits.
“I think we were not included in the short list,” Ang said.
He said despite being excluded from the shortlist, San Miguel would continue to look for investment opportunities overseas. “We will continue to look for more investments, whether domestic or international investments,” he said.
The private equity owners of United Biscuits, Blackstone Group and PAI Partners, have been working on plans for a sale or a public share listing by the end of the year. The auction for United Biscuits is reported to be worth 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion).
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