Lafarge Holcim dropped its plan to sell cement producer Holcim Philippines Inc. after a deal with San Miguel Corp. fell through.
Holcim Philippines president and chief executive John Stull said during the virtual annual stockholders’ meeting the company was “no longer in the sale process” and was even studying expanding the group’s capacity after the pandemic.
“In May of 2020, the agreement between Top Frontier Holdings [parent company of SMC] and Lafarge Holcim for the sale of its shares lapsed without approval of the PCC [Philippine Competition Commission], therefore HPI will remain the major shareholder of Holcim and we will grow with the company and the country,” Stull said.
“We are very pleased to note that we are no longer in the sale process, and we are very excited about the future in working with one of the largest, most successful companies in the building material sector, and we’re happy to remain part of the group,” he said.
San Miguel earlier dropped plan to acquire a controlling stake in Holcim Philippines after the agreement lapsed without getting the required regulatory approval.
Stull said the company was studying projects over the long term that would include increasing capacities of facilities in Luzon and Mindanao as overall prospects for country remained positive.
The cement firm has manufacturing facilities in La Union, Bulacan, Batangas, Misamis Oriental and Davao.
Meanwhile, the company expressed confidence that it would overcome the pandemic after it put in place strong health and safety culture and operational improvements.
“Our health and safety culture makes us confident in our ability to continue running our facilities safely as we embrace the new normal,” Stull said.
Holcim Philippines chairman Tomas Alcantara said that with a strong financial performance in 2019, the company completed capacity expansion projects and efficiency improvements to industrial and logistics operations that strengthened the sustainability of the business.
The cement firm recorded P3.58-billion net income in 2019, up 41 percent from P2.5 billion in 2018.