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Askari Cement ignites Nizampur cement plant’s new kiln

Askari Cement has ignited the newly installed 6500t/day kiln at its Nizampur cement plant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The kiln increases the plant’s capacity by 73% to 4.85Mt/yr. The project, along with parent company Fauji Cement’s construction of a new 2.05Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Dera Ghazi Khan, cost US$339m. Fauji Cement took a US$212m loan to support the works in January 2022. The group expects both projects to raise its capacity by 56% to 10.5Mt/yr and to increase its market share to 13%.

Fauji Cement’s upcoming Dera Ghazi Khan cement plant is scheduled for commissioning in mid-late 2024.

Fauji Cement takes US$212m loan for cement plant expansions

Pakistan: Fauji Cement has taken out a loan of US$212m from a consortium lead by Habib Bank Limited. The Business Recorder newspaper has reported that the funding will go towards cement plant expansion projects with a total cost of US$339m. Fauji Cement plans to expand its plant in Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, while its subsidiary Askari Cement plans to expand its plant in Nizampur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The company says that the projects will together increase its installed cement production capacity to 10Mt/yr.

Fauji Cement Co Ltd signs Rs37,400m syndicated term loan facilities for expansion

KARACHI: The signing ceremony for credit facilities for path breaking expansions by Fauji Cement Company Limited and Askari Cement Limited was held on Monday. Both the companies are part of the Fauji Group and have been in the forefront of infrastructure development in Pakistan.

The expansions are in line with the Fauji Group’s vision to play a role in the economic development and infrastructure footprint of the nation.

The Syndicated Term Loan facilities of Rs 37,400 million from a banking consortium is led by HBL. Other members of the consortium include Faysal Bank Limited, Bank Alfalah Limited, National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab, Bank Al-Habib, Askari Bank, MCB Bank Limited, Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited, Bank of Khyber and First Women Bank Limited. The credit facilities extended to both the companies have a tenure of 10 years and also include SBP concessionary finance facilities i.e. TERF & LTFF.

The facilities with a combined project cost of circa Rs 60 billion (including a Debt component of Rs 37.4 billion) will be used by the companies to enhance their combined production capacity to 10 million tons per annum making them the second largest cement producer in the tegion. The expansion projects of FCCL & ACL are situated at DG Khan (Punjab) and Nizampur (KPK) respectively, and will play a significant part in the social uplift of the areas along with job creation.

The signing ceremony was attended by Waqar Malik, MD & CEO – Fauji Foundation Group, Qamar Haris Manzoor, Group CEO FCCL & ACL, Muhammad Aurangzeb, President & CEO – HBL, Arif Usmani, President & CEO – NBP, Atif Bajwa, Director & CEO – BAFL, Atif Riaz Bokhari, President & CEO – AKBL, Mohsin Ali Nathani, President & CEO – HMBL and representatives of BOP, MCB, FBL, BAHL, BOK & FWB on 27th December 2021 in Karachi.

The initiative is one of the largest syndicated financing project in the cement sector by a banking consortium in Pakistan achieved in a record time. HBL is acting as Agent, Investment Agent and mandated Lead Arranger. The expansion projects along with potential merger / amalgamation of both the companies will hoist FCCL as one of the largest cement player in Pakistan. The current expansions in our cement vertical, emerges from Fauji Groups vision to play a key role in national development. The companies form part of the Fauji Group.

Fauji Cement renews Qamar Haris Manzoor term as managing director

Pakistan: Fauji Cement has renewed Qamar Haris Manzoor as its managing director and chief executive officer (CEO). His current term will last three years until mid-December 2024. Qamar Haris Manzoor was first appointed as the head of the cement company in mid-2020.

Qamar Haris Manzoor holds over 33 years of experience in plant and project management. He started his career with ICI managing its soda ash plant operations subsequently working for Lotte Chemical, amongst other roles, where he eventually became its director of manufacturing. He later became the CEO of El Paso Technology Pakistan before following this with other leading roles at Hawa Energy and Naveena Group. He holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in the US in addition to management qualifications

FCCL to become the third-largest player in the country

Fauji Cement Company Ltd (FCCL) informed the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on 18 November that its Board of Directors has approved the process of amalgamation of Askari Cement Ltd into Fauji Cement Co Ltd and its placement before the shareholders in the Extraordinary General Meeting of the company as Special Business for their approval as per requirements of the Companies Act of 2017.

While commenting on the amalgamation, AHL Research stated that, pertinently, Askari has a cement capacity of 2.8Mta against FCCL’s current capacity of 3.43Mta. This implies an 82 per cent addition to existing capacity, which, together with FCCL’s announced greenfield expansion of 2.05Mta in the north (DG Khan, Punjab) and ACL’s brownfield expansion of 2Mta, will render FCCL to become the third-largest player in the country with a capacity of 10.3Mta.

Post-merger and expansion, ACL will add 47 per cent to the total capacity (4.9Mta out of the total 10.3Mta) in the new entity, whereas its current owners will hold nearly 37 per cent in shareholding (800m shares out of 2180m shares). Albeit, this deal will be beneficial for both ACL and FCCL, as the company’s cumulative market share will aid its augmented presence in North (third largest capacity in the region after Bestway Cement Ltd expands by 2.16Mta to 12Mta and Lucky Cement expands by 3.15Mta to 15Mta).

Two cement plant projects to bring Fauji Cement’s capacity to 10.5Mt/yr

Pakistan: Fauji Cement says that two planned cement plant projects will increase its total cement production capacity by 64% to 10.5Mt/yr by mid-2023, from 6.4Mt/yr at present. The producer plans to establish a 2.05Mt/yr cement plant at Dera Ghazi Khan. After its commissioning before mid-2023, the plant’s capacity will more than double to 5.65Mt/yr. Subsidiary Askari Cement is expanding its 2.8Mt/yr Nizampur cement plant’s capacity by 73% to 4.85Mt/yr. The group estimates that the total 4.1Mt/yr-worth of new capacity will increase its national cement market share to 13% from 6.7%. It says that this will make it the second largest cement company active in Northern Pakistan, after Bestway Cement.

Fauji Cement said that it is well positioned for growth. It generated 70% of the power consumed in its operations in 2020 itself.