ARM Cement Kenya nears deal with foreign investor

ARM Cement Ltd., a Kenyan producer of the building material, is in talks with a foreign development-finance institution about taking a stake in the company and will seek to raise more capital than originally envisaged, CEO Pradeep Paunrana said.

In December, ARM announced it was in talks with a foreign institution that planned to invest as much as $125 million. The company has faced “liquidity challenges” that cast doubt on whether it’s able to meet obligations on its commercial-paper programs, the Capital Markets Authority said on Monday.

In January, ARM said the foreign investment would be by way of seven-year convertible preference shares which, on conversion to equity in the company, wouldn’t be expected to reach the threshold requiring a mandatory takeover bid.

ARM has reduced its debts by about 1.2 billion shillings ($11.8 million) in the past three months and is continuing to make payments of 150 million shillings per month, Paunrana said.
Shares in ARM have dropped 26% this year, underperforming the Nairobi Securities Exchange All Share Index, which has risen 1%.