Oman's Raysut Cement plans to invest up to $700mln for expansion

Raysut Cement last Thursday signed land lease and port terminal services agreements with Port of Duqm Company for building a new grinding unit in Duqm, with an investment of US$30mn.

Speaking to Muscat Daily on the sidelines of the signing ceremony of the new grinding unit in Duqm, Raysut Cement’s chief executive officer Joey Ghose said, “Our goal is to raise our capacity to 20mn tonnes by 2025 and eventually be a solid partner in infrastructure development and nation building in the markets where we are present.”

To achieve 20mn tonnes per annum manufacturing capabilities, Raysut Cement has been working on a number of initiatives, including acquiring existing cement companies in Africa and building greenfield facilities in India and Africa.

To materialise all the expansion projects in India and Africa, the company is likely to invest around US$500mn- US$700mn in the next three-four years period, Ghose said. “We will be using a mix of debt and equity to finance our expansion plans. We are discussing with a number of financial institutions, mostly Omani and some international, for securing the funding,” he said while expressing confidence that the company will be able to raise both equity and debt funding easily.

Revealing expansion plans on various locations in India and Africa, Ghose said, “We are looking at a greenfield plant in Kenya. We are also looking at a probable acquisition in Uganda, and also a greenfield plant in South Africa. We are also exploring possibilities in Madagascar.” He expressed confidence that the Salalah-based company would be able to add additional 10mn tonnes capabilities from these four locations.

Ghose further said that Raysut Cement is also working on plans to enter India’s cement market through a tie-up or joint venture. “We are definitely looking at India, but it is rather challenging to enter the Indian market alone. So, we are looking for partners there with whom we can work. Raysut Cement is looking at reputed and well-established partners within the Indian cement industry. However, we are also open to other options and are currently talking to various players for this.”

Speaking about the timeline for finalising various expansion projects, he said the company is going to finalise the deal in India within next 12 months, and in Africa, at least one deal is expected to be completed in six months time.