24 July 2014
Bestway Cement Limited announces acquisition of Lafarge Pakistan Cement Limited
Bestway Cement Limited (“Bestway Cement”), a subsidiary of Bestway Group (“Bestway”), has today announced the successful acquisition of Lafarge Pakistan Cement Limited (“Lafarge Pakistan”) for an enterprise value of US$329 million.
The Pakistan-listed subsidiary has acquired Lafarge Pakistan’s 2.4 million tonnes per annum (“TPA”) cement plant located in Chakwal, Pakistan for an enterprise value of US$329 million. As a result of the acquisition, Bestway Cement now represents 18% of the entire industry’s capacity in Pakistan, with its capacity set to increase to 8 million TPA. The transaction means Bestway Cement has now become the country’s largest cement manufacturer.
Zameer Choudrey, Bestway Group Chief Executive and CEO of Bestway Cement, said: “We are excited about the prospect of adding Lafarge Pakistan Cement to our existing portfolio. Through this investment we have reinforced our commitment to Pakistan where our cement and banking businesses continue to flourish. We see great potential for the cement business to keep growing, and will continue to review opportunities to invest in it further. For now, we will be working to integrate Lafarge into our existing cement business, adding efficiencies and synergies where possible.”
The UK-based global conglomerate is the UK’s eighteenth largest privately owned company and seventh largest family-owned business.
Bestway includes the UK’s second largest wholesaler serving 125,000 independent retailers and caterers from 64 warehouses nationwide and with over 6 million square feet of selling space.
United Bank Limited, Bestway’s banking division, is Pakistan’s second largest private bank with assets under management of US$10.3 billion and a branch network of over 1,400 branches serving over five million customers.
This latest acquisition comes less than a week after the Group’s US$1.1 billion acquisition of the UK’s third largest pharmacy business - The Co-Operative Pharmacy. The pharmacy business has over 770 branches across the UK and over 7,000 employees. In 2013 it reported total revenues of US$1.3 billion and EBITDA of US$116 million.
With these recent acquisitions, Bestway will have an annual turnover of approximately US$6 billion and a global workforce of 33,000 people.
The Bestway Group’s charitable trust, Bestway Foundation, has donated in excess of US9.0 million in Pakistan since 1997 for health, education and humanitarian causes.