Camargo Aims for Total Control of Cimpor

Brazil’s Camargo Correa has launched a takeover offer for the 66.75% it does not own of Portugal’s Cimpor, it says. Acting through its InterCement Austria unit, Camargo could spend as much as EUR2.4bn ($3.2bn) through the offer to pay EUR5.50 per share for the 444m shares it doesn’t own in the cement company. The offer price represented a 10% premium to Friday’s EUR5.00 closing price. Cimpor shares closed Monday at EUR5.47. The Brazilian conglomerate says it aims to further both its own and Cimpor’s international expansion, and to continue to build a balanced portfolio between mature markets and markets with high growth potential. It would also seek to merge InterCement’s cement and concrete assets in South America and Angola with Cimpor. It does not give any timetable for the offer. Camargo has previously attempted to take over Cimpor, and arrived at its current position in 2010 following a failed takeover attempt from Brazil’s CSN. Portugal’s Caixa Geral de Depositos bank has said it would sell its 9.58% holding to Camargo, if Brazil’s Votorantim, which owns 21.2% and has first refusal on Caixa’s shares, passes. A takeover of Cimpor would need to be approved by regulators in Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, South Africa, Egypt and Tunisia.