The original article can be found here.
Article highlights:
– Cement producer PPC’s debt-restructure agreement with its lenders is the first step in the company’s process of separating its South African and international businesses;
– CEO Roland van Wijnen was was appointed in October 2019. Two things stood out for him at the time. One, was that South Africa’s balance sheet needed to be separated from the company’s international balance sheet, and the second was that PPC needed to avoid a rights issue;
– By the end of March 2020, PPC’s debt had ballooned to R5.8 billion and R2.5 billion of it was related to PPC Barnet, with some from its Zimbabwe and Rwanda operations;
– The lenders will decide whether the group needs to have a R750 million rights issue in September, but Van Wijnen is confident that it won’t happen, given the group’s performance.
