SMC completes buyout of minority shareholders of Eagle Cement

Billionaire Ramon Ang-led conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) completed the buyout of minority shareholders of Eagle Cement, giving it control of nearly 100 percent of the country’s third-largest cement company ahead of plans to take the firm private.

In a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, SMC said the tender offer involved 572.78 million common shares equivalent to 11.45 percent of Eagle Cement, which is owned by Ang’s family. The shares were valued at P12.6 billion.

“The sale and purchase of the tendered shares were settled on the cross date or on Dec 14, 2022,” SMC said in the filing.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Stock Exchange placed a trading suspension on Eagle Cement shares on Wednesday after the buyout caused its public ownership level to fall below the minimum requirement of 10 percent.

Eagle Cement previously indicated plans to voluntary delist from the PSE after SMC completes the acquisition.

SMC announced last October it would buy 88.5 percent of Eagle Cement for P22.02 per share or a total price of P97.4 billion, consolidating the group’s cement interests under the food, drinks, energy and infrastructure conglomerate.

Eagle Cement, which went public in 2017, operates a fully-integrated cement plant in San IIdefonso, Bulacan with an annual production capacity of 8.6 million metric tons, equivalent to 215 million bags per year.

It controls an estimated market share of 29 percent in the combined areas of Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.

During the first nine months of the year, Eagle Cement saw profits fall 17 percent to P4.22 billion on mounting cost pressures, its latest financial report showed.

Net sales from January to November rose 24 percent to P20.1 billion due to higher selling prices and volumes.

Of the company’s total cement sales, bagged cement still accounted for the bulk of the figure at 84 percent while the remaining 16 percent was derived from bulk cement, with domestic demand still largely coming from the private sector, the report showed.

SMC owns North Cement Corp., which supplies cement in Central and Northern Luzon with a production capacity of 2.2 million tons of finished cement per year.

In 2021, NCC was merged with San Miguel Northern Cement Inc., which is developing capacity for another 4.73 million tons of cement per year.

The conglomerate also owns Southern Concerte Industries Inc., whose cement grinding plant in Santa Cruz in Davao del Sur was expected to start commercial operations in the first semester of 2022.