Attock Cement to sell its 60% share in Iraqi plant

Attock Cement Pakistan Ltd (ACL) is expected to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the shareholders on 25 May 2023, to consider and, if deemed fit, to pass a resolution of disposal and to enter into a share purchase agreement 18m shares held by the company in its subsidiary, Saqr-Al-Keetan cement grinding unit in Iraq. The grinding plant has a cement capacity of 540,000tpa and was set up in 2019. 

ACL will sell 60 per cent of the entire share capital of Saqr Al-Keetan cement company. As per the negotiation, two buyers (Abdul Lateef Mohsin Al Geetan, an Iraqi national, purchasing 50 per cent of the sale shares and M/s Lamassu Babylon General Trading Co, a company incorporated under the laws of Dubai, UAE), purchasing 50 per cent of the 9m sale shares (collectively, the “buyers”) against a sale consideration of US$11,700,000 – each (collectively, the ‘sale price’) per the terms of the share purchase agreement recall.  

Line IV project 4000tpd (1.2Mta)
According to the 9MFY22-23 report, almost 100 per cent of shipments of plant and machinery have arrived at the plant site in Hub, Balochistan. All civil, mechanical and electrical contractors have mobilised, and the work on the project is in full swing. It is expected that the plant erection would be completed by December 2023. 

Financial performance in 9MFY23
During the 9MFY22-23, the company earned a profit after tax of PKR1.05bn (US$374.4m) against PKR1.18bn in a year ago period. The total local cement dispatches stand at 1.478Mt compared to 1.905Mt in the same period last year. Capacity utilisation stood at 68 per cent during this period.