Story by Owen Mandovha
A consortium of local entrepreneurs, Fossil Mines has settled the purchase price of Lafarge Cement in what could turn out to be the entrepreneurship deal of the year.
The cement giant is now firmly in the hands of local entrepreneurs after the successful settlement of the purchase price to Associated Cement International Private Limited, which owned 76.45 percent of Lafarge.
Fossil Mines was the successful bidder when the Switzerland headquartered multinational company put the asset on sale earlier this year.
In a statement released by Lafarge Cement Acting Company Secretary Mr Arnold Chikazhe this Thursday, the two parties are now waiting for the transfer of shares to Fossil Mines to effectively put a seal to the transaction which may be considered a ground-breaking deal for the local entrepreneurship fraternity.
The acquisition of Lafarge Cement by Fossil Mines underlines the Government’s mantra of ‘Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo,’ and it is expected that the company will be transformed to further harness the country’s infrastructure development trajectory by increasing cement production capacity.
Once Lafarge Holcim considered disposing of most of its African assets, the expectation was that a Chinese consortium was a leading contender to swoop on the lucrative asset only for Fossil Mines to be announced as the successful bidder, bolstering its position as a growing local construction company.
