Phinma acquiring Petra Cement for P500 million

MANILA, Philippines — The Phinma Group is acquiring Petra Cement Inc., a cement manufacturer with a facility in Zamboanga del Norte, for P500 million.

In a stock exchange filing, Phinma said subsidiary Philcement Corp. inked a share purchase agreement with Petra Cement for its 100 percent outstanding shares.

Petra Cement is a company that was put up by Gilbert Cruz, who is also one of the cornerstones of Big Boss Cement Inc., a cement firm chaired by Henry Sy Jr.

Philcement Mindanao Corp., a subsidiary of Philcement, will pay P500 million in exchange for the outstanding shares.

The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of the year.

Phinma said the acquisition is aligned with Philcement’s growth strategy and would support its commitment to assure Filipino consumers with reliable and high-quality supply of cement products under its legacy brand, Union Cement.

Last January, Philcement signed a manufacturing and sale agreement with Petra Cement to enable the former to operate the Petra plant in Zamboanga del Norte.

The plant comprises a cement grinding facility with a capacity of 500,000 metric tons per annum, which serves the growing and dynamic Northern Mindanao market.

Philcement is engaged in the manufacture, importation, processing, distribution and sale of cement products.

The company currently operates a cement processing facility in the Freeport Area of Bataan in Mariveles.

Philcement’s Mariveles cement facility is considered as the first state-of-the-art cement facility in the country and one of the largest independent cement terminals globally.

The facility has an initial annual capacity of two million metric tons of cement or 400,000 bags a day.

Philcement president and CEO Eduardo Sahagun earlier said the group also intends to invest about P2 billion to put up a new facility in Davao to further solidify its presence in the cement industry.

Sahagun said the company is working on the environmental clearance certificate for the planned Davao facility.