Oman’s Raysut Cement Company aims to acquire ARM Cement, a leading producer and major supplier of cement in Kenya, as part of the company’s aggressive strategy to expand into East and Central Africa.

The move from Oman’s largest cement manufacturer comes following the declaration by ARM Cement that it has a debt of over $140 million.

Raysut said it had expressed its interest to the administrators to take over the company in a deal which is estimated to be valued at over $100 million.

The Omani firm is already in the process of setting up a grinding unit in Somaliland and Mogadishu, Somalia with a Dubai-based partner. The company is also in advanced discussions to acquire various cement producers in Uganda and Djibouti.  

Plans are also afoot to build a one million tonne per annum cement plant in Berbera, Somalia and the construction work could start as early as next month. Also it is in advanced negotiations with Kampala Cement, it stated.

Besides, Oman cement giant is also building a one million tonne plant in Georgia, near Tbilisi, it added.

This comes as part of Group CEO Joey Ghose's five-year strategy to turn Raysut Cement into a 20-million tonne company by 2022.

The acquisition will complement Raysut’s revised strategy to manufacture clinker in proximity to the markets it supplies to in East Africa, said a statement from the Omani company.

Raysut Cement is one of the major clinker suppliers to the East African region and the ARM assets will fit very well with its plans for East Africa where in the last quarter alone it supplied over 300,000 tonnes of clinker from its home plant at Salalah, Oman to Kenya and Tanzania, it stated.

A recent board meeting held in the presence of Raysut Group Chairman Ahmed bin Yousef bin Alawi bin Abdullah Al Ibrahim approved the proposal of the Kenyan-born Ghose with significant support from all stakeholders of the company, including the government representatives.-TradeArabia News Service