Amsons Group Extends Buyout Offer for Remaining Bamburi Cement Shares

Tanzania’s Amsons Group has extended its offer to buy out the remaining minority Bamburi Cement shareholders who declined the initial bid of Sh65 per share.

The initial takeover offer, made in July, sought to acquire 100 per cent of Bamburi Cement’s issued ordinary shares.

At that time, Holcim held a 58.6 per cent stake, with the remaining shares distributed among Kenyan institutions, individuals, and other foreign investors.

However, shareholders representing 3.46 per cent of the company’s shares opted not to accept the Sh65 per share offer.

Amsons has now issued a six-week ultimatum to these non-assenting shareholders. They can either accept the original offer or seek a court order to prevent the acquisition or compel Amsons to make a revised offer.

“The offeror offered to purchase up to 100 per cent of the issued ordinary shares in the share capital of the company for a consideration of Sh65 per share,” Amsons stated in a notice to the remaining shareholders. “If these terms include a choice of consideration, you should within six weeks… inform the offerors in writing… if you fail to make a choice and do not make an application to the court, the offeror will acquire your shares.”

Amsons also informed the shareholders of their right to apply to the court for an order to prevent the acquisition or to enforce different terms.

To facilitate the “squeeze-out” process, which allows an investor with over 90 per cent ownership to acquire the remaining shares, Bamburi Cement has received approval from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to suspend trading of its shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

“Notice is hereby given to the shareholders of Bamburi Cement that following the successful completion of the takeover offer by Amsons Industries on December 5, 2024, Amsons acquired 96.54 per cent of the issued shares in Bamburi,” Bamburi stated in a cautionary notice.

“Amsons intends to initiate the squeeze-out process to acquire the remaining 3.46 percent of Bamburi’s shares held by shareholders who did not accept the offer. To facilitate the implementation of the squeeze-out, Bamburi has received approval from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to suspend trading of its shares… the trading of Bamburi shares at NSE shall be suspended with effect from the close of trading on February 27 until May 9 this year.”

The acquisition process began with Amsons’ initial offer of Sh23.59 billion for the entire company.

A competing bid from Savannah Clinker, initially offering Sh70 per share and later raised to Sh76.55 per share (Sh27.7 billion total), emerged but was subsequently withdrawn in early December, leaving Amsons as the sole bidder.