According to NEQSOL Holding, on October 18, the holding submitted an application to the AMCU for the purchase of shares in the largest Ukrainian cement producer Ivano-Frankivskcement PJSC.
According to a press release from NEQSOL Holding, the holding and the shareholders of Ivano-Frankivskcement PJSC are currently at the final stage of negotiations. It is planned that the financing of the transaction in Ukraine will be provided by a group of leading international financial institutions.
The report notes that the construction industry is one of the priority areas for the holding. NEQSOL Holding includes the Norm cement plant, which was launched in 2013 and today is the largest cement producer in the South Caucasus. With a strong international management team, NEQSOL Holding is pursuing a strategy to create a leading player in the cement industry in Central and Eastern Europe.
Volodymyr Lavrenchuk, Regional Director of NEQSOL Holding Ukraine, gave a comment on the future deal: “We hope for the approval of the new deal in the AMCU and the entry of the high-tech enterprise Ivano-Frankivskcement into the NEQSOL Holding group. We highly appreciate the long-term outstanding results achieved by the management and staff of Ivano-Frankivskcement, which have created one of the most modern cement enterprises in Europe. Our holding has a successful experience of financing, including with the involvement of international financial institutions, which will help to ensure the availability of the necessary investments to maintain a high rate of development of the plant"
The amount of the deal is not disclosed. The head of the analytical department of the investment company Eavex Capital Dmitry Churin estimates that 100% of the company's shares worth $ 300 million. The head of the analytical department at Concorde Capital Alexander Paraschiy states that the company shares worth from $ 300 to 400 million. "This is an expensive enterprise with a good resource base."
Ivano-Frankivskcement produces a third of all cement in Ukraine. In 2020, the enterprise, which employs 2 000 people, increased production by 14% - up to 3.9 million tons. The nomenclature includes about 300 items of construction products, including slate and gypsum. The capacities are loaded at 85%. The net profit of the enterprise in 2020 was UAH 1.3 billion with UAH 7.1 billion revenue (12% more than in 2019). More than 90% of products are sold in Ukraine.
Ivano-Frankivskcement appeared from the Ivano-Frankivsk cement and slate plant. From 1964 to 1994 the company was state-owned, but the employees of the enterprise bought out the state share and created the collective enterprise "Ivano-Frankivsk Cement and Slate Plant". In 1999, the enterprise was reorganized into a private joint stock company "Ivano-Frankivskcement".
NEQSOL Holding is a diversified group of companies operating in the energy, telecommunications, high-tech and construction industries in the UK, USA, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, UAE and other countries. The holding unites more than 30 subsidiaries, many of which are market leaders with more than two decades of experience in their fields.
These include Nobel Oil Services, Nobel Upstream, Bakcell, Vodafone Ukraine and Norm, the largest cement producer in the South Caucasus. NEQSOL Holding is constantly striving to stimulate growth and strengthen synergies between companies, as well as expand its activities through new geographic markets and business areas. This will also be achieved through projects such as the Digital Silk Way, which aims to create the shortest modern fiber optic backhaul network connecting Europe with Central and South Asia.
