PPC hopes to cement its future by bringing in more than 40% of revenues and profit from African countries other than SA by 2017. It appears the domestic industry is ripe for consolidation with four traditional players – PPC, Lafarge, NPC Cimpor, Afrisam – now joined by Nigerian-backed Sephaku and Chinese-backed Mamba cement group. This has made it a highly competitive business, in SA and regionally. So, some years ago, PPC headed into Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has built plants, while boosting operations in Zimbabwe. But debt relating to these plants has put a strain on profit. In the six months to September results that were released this week, PPC saw headline earnings per share dive 66% despite rocketing cash-generation from operations and overall cement sales volumes and revenues up well more than 10%. Mish-al Emeran, an equity analyst at Electus Fund managers, says under the circumstances, it is a decent result, underpinned by intense comp...
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