SigmaRoc to acquire Ronez Ltd
Conditional agreement on £45 million reverse acquisition of Aggregate Industries’ Channel Islands subsidiary
AIM-listed SigmaRoc have conditionally agreed to acquire Ronez Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aggregate Industries, part of the LafargeHolcim Group, for £45.0 million in cash.
In conjunction with the acquisition, the company has conditionally raised approximately £50 million via the issue of 100,000,000 new ordinary shares at 40p per share and 10,000,000 convertible loan notes at £1.00 per note. Net proceeds of the placing will be used to satisfy the consideration and for working capital purposes.
Ronez are fully integrated producers of construction materials and operate two hard rock quarries and multiple business lines with associated production units across Jersey and Guernsey. They have approximately 3.36 million tonnes of proved mineral reserves and a further 6.22 million tonnes of measured and indicated mineral resources.
In 2015, Ronez recorded revenue of £26.3 million and operating profit before tax of £2.94 million.
As a cash-generating and profitable business with an established track record, SigmaRoc say Ronez will provide them with a platform to accelerate their growth and fund the continued execution of their wider business plan – the pursuit of acquisitions of high-quality and niche market assets in the construction materials sector.
Due to its size and nature, the acquisition constitutes a reverse takeover pursuant to the AIM rules. The acquisition will be conditional upon, among other things, shareholder approval at a general meeting to be held on 3 January 2017.
Assuming that the resolutions are approved, it is expected that the acquisition will complete, admission will occur and trading in the new ordinary shares will commence on 5 January 2017.
Commenting on the deal, Max Vermorken (pictured), chief executive officer of SigmaRoc, said: ‘Ronez present an excellent opportunity to acquire a profitable and well managed building materials business in a very stable market.
‘It will be our cornerstone asset and a great starting point in the journey to grow a niche focused building materials business. We look forward to working with the local management team and are confident that we can support them to further improve on Ronez’s impressive operational and financial performance.
‘The acquisition of Ronez is the first of what we anticipate being a pipeline of value-accretive deals and we are delighted to have secured broad buy-in from UK and Channel Islands investors keen to support our ambitions.’
