CIMERWA Ltd today announced the sale 51% of its equity to PPC Ltd of South Africa, forUS$69.4 million.

Paul Stuiver CEO of PPC said:

"This transaction is a further step in our commitment to invest in the sub-Saharan Africa and we are very confident about Rwanda. The plant's location in central Africa, which currently lacks significant production capacity, is a challenging but a very strategic one."

Afrique Ramba, chairman of CIMERWA said:

"We are excited with the PPC business relationship. This substantial equity investment is a sign of strong confidence in Rwanda business environment and the social, economic and political progress we are making. CIMERWA is delighted to drive forward Rwanda's goal of private sector led development."

PPC, established in 1892, is the leading supplier of cement in southern Africa with eight cement manufacturing facilities and three milling depots in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe producing around eight million tons of cement products annually. PPC also produces aggregates, metallurgical-grade lime, burnt dolomite and limestone. In addition to serving its domestic markets, PPC exports cement and lime to several African countries.

PPC established South Africa's first cement plant on the outskirts of Pretoria to counter the exorbitant delivered cost of cement imported from Europe. In 2010, PPC celebrated its centenary as a JSE-listed company, joining an extremely small and elite group of listed centenarians, not only in South Africa but worldwide.

CIMERWA has operated in Rwanda for almost 30 years. It has a current capacity of 100 000 tons of cement annually and is currently constructing a 600 000 tons per annum plant that will be commissioned in 2014. The cement company is also in the process of finalizing a US$104 million debt finance to complete the expansion project.

Current annual demand for cement in Rwanda is estimated at 350 000 tons.. Based on the positive economic outlook for the Great Lakes region, cement demand on is projected to increase to one million tons during the next decade.