PPC chief Darryll Castle says 2017 will determine the company’s future
PPC, SA’s biggest cement maker, is gearing up for a milestone year that CEO Darryll Castle says will determine the company’s future, after the share price almost halved in 2016. The impending start of production at plants in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia will help transform PPC into a sub-Saharan African producer and it is crucial they run smoothly and efficiently, Castle said on Wednesday in an interview at Bloomberg’s office in Johannesburg, where the cement maker is based. The company needs to rebuild credibility with investors after it was forced to raise R4bn in a rights offer earlier this year to service debt, he said. "Everything that PPC’s done over the last five, seven years is culminating now," Castle said. "Everything about the future of the company is about what we do in the next year to year-and-a-half." PPC is seeking to move on from a tumultuous year in which it negotiated a costly R2bn bank guarantee and held a rights offer after S&P Global Ratings cu...
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