ARM Cement’s Kenyan assets sold for $50 million

The assets of Kenya’s ARM Cement have been sold to the National Cement Company for $50 million, its administrator said on Tuesday.

“ARM Cement PLC (under Administration) announces that National Cement Company Limited has signed an agreement for the acquisition of all cement and non-cement assets and business of ARM Cement PLC in Kenya as a going concern for a purchase price consideration of $50 million,” the firm said in a statement.

National Cement Ltd is a subsidiary of Devki Group, a family-owned conglomerate with interests in cement, steel products, roofing sheets and aviation.

ARM Cement was put under administration last August by some of its creditors over a $190 million debt and its shares were suspended from the Nairobi bourse.

It has debts with a range of creditors, including local commercial banks.

The transaction, which applies to ARM Cement’s Kenyan assets only, is subject to regulatory approvals, the statement from the administrator said.

The company and its subsidiaries also have operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.

In October, the creditors of ARM Cement, once the country’s second-largest cement maker, approved the sale of a subsidiary or assets to reduce its debt.

The company has seen its market share plunge to just 10 per cent after the clinker plant it built in Tanzania in 2014 failed to generate income.

In December, Oman’s Raysut Cement said it planned to acquire ARM Cement as part of its expansion plans.

A month earlier, Nigeria’s Dangote Cement was approached about a potential transaction by advisers to ARM Cement, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters at the time.