HeidelbergCement merges assets acquired from Aditya Birla

HeidelbergCement Bangladesh has completed the merger of all assets of the two entities it acquired from UltraTech Cement Middle East Investment Limited, a concern of Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla, for Tk183 crore last year.  

Of the two companies, Emirates Cement Bangladesh Limited was engaged in cement production at its factory on 16-17 acres of land in Munshiganj, while Emirates Power owns and runs a 10MW power plant in the same area.

Since HeidelbergCement had bought 100% shares of the two entities, the merger process did not need any share exchange.

The two entities are abolished and their assets, liabilities, and people now belong to the listed company.

With the merger, Heidelberg created synergies in a wide range of factors, according to the company's last directors' report.

"The merged businesses are subject to much less corporate taxes as they turned out to be a part of a listed firm," a senior official at HeidelbergCement Bangladesh told The Business Standard.

"Everything such as material procurement, carrying, sales and marketing, administration, accounting, and auditing would see costs saved."

Ultratech Cement's factory is producing Heidelberg's Scan Cement now.

The merged facility with 6.6 lakh tonnes of annual capacity increased Heidelberg Cement's total annual cement production capacity to 35 lakh tonnes.

German construction material giant HeidelbergCement Group entered Bangladesh in the late 1990s by setting up a floating terminal with onboard packing facilities at the Chattogram port.

Its then Bangladesh concern ScanCement International Limited built a greenfield plant in Kanchpur near Dhaka.

In 2000, Heidelberg bought a minority position in Chittagong Cement Clinker Grinding Company Limited, a local cement company at Chattogram, and later acquired a controlling stake.

In 2003, the two companies under Heidelberg Group's control were merged and the name changed to HeidelbergCement Bangladesh Limited.

The listed company also fully acquired Meghna Energy Ltd last year which has a 9.99MW power plant in Narayanganj.

Besides, for a stronger and greener internal power ecosystem, the company announced an investment in a 152KW solar plant which would see capacity extension up to 500KW in two years.

Amid disrupted sales, cost escalation, and increased competition, Heidelberg Cement Bangladesh fell into quarterly losses in the July-September period after posting profits for three consecutive quarters.

Its shares closed at Tk274.1 on Thursday at the Dhaka Stock Exchange.