Lafarge WAPCO plans N60bn expansion
August 7th, 2008 Tunde Brown || tunde.brown@stockmarketnigeria.com
Lafarge WAPCO, a company quoted on the building materials sub sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, has disclosed plans to embark on a N60 billion capital expansion programme meant to boost and upgrade its services. While speaking to the press last week, the company’s Managing Director, Mr. G. Lourandos said that capital investment would be funded by loans made available by banks in a two-tranche arrangement, involving the Naira and Dollar denominations.
Speaking further, he made known some of the details of the proposed investment provision which includes plans to deploy an additional line by 2010 with a capacity of about 2.2 million metric tones which would in turn spur aggregate capacity to 4.2 million metric tones. Lafarge WAPCO had already signed the contract with foreign-based technical companies in China and Finland for the supply and erection of the facility, the Managing Director disclosed.
It would be recalled that a similar scenario played out in year 2004, when the company took loans from a consortium of banks, which plunged the company into financial difficulties. However, Mr. Lourandos explained that as at the time, the company which was bankrupt, was operating below capacity and was incurring persistent losses. He however expressed optimism that this time around, the company intends to capitalize on its investment lines to generate enough earnings when a turn around through efficient allocation the proposed loan is effected.
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