Consortium acquires ICI Pakistan at $152.5m bid value

AHMED MALIK

KARACHI: Lucky Cement Limited, the flagship company of Yunus Brothers Group, along with four other group of companies has acquired 75.81 percent shares of ICI Pakistan Limited at a bid value of $152.5 million, well informed sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday.

Sources said that the consortium of Yunus Brothers Group was led by Lucky Cement Limited, which has 50 percent share in the acquisition followed by four other group of companies, which have remaining 50 percent share. The other group of companies, which participated in this acquisition are Yunus Textiles, Gadoon Textile, Lucky Textile and Yunus Brothers Company, a trading arm of the group.

The consortium of Yunus Brothers Group acquired majority shareholding of 75.81 percent in ICI Pakistan held by ICI Omricron, a 100 percent owned subsidiary of Akzo Noble.

The ICI Pakistan has recently de-merged the company and separated its businesses in two entities namely Azko Nobel Pakistan having paint business and ICI Pakistan Limited having PSF, Soda Ash, Life Sciences and captive power plant businesses.

Akzo Nobel N.V. announced launching process for the sale of the 75.81 percent shareholding in ICI Pakistan Limited on June 13, 2012.

Three potential buyers namely a consortium of Yunus Brothers Group led by Lucky Cement Limited, Nishat Mills Limited and a consortium of Fajr Capital of Dubai and ICorp (owned by existing employees of ICI Pak) expressed their interest in acquiring the company.

Nishat Mills Limited, however, withdrew its Public Announcement of Intention (PAoI) for the proposed acquisition on July 25, 2012.

The two remaining companies carried out due diligence for potential acquisition and participated in bidding process.

Finally, the Yunus Brothers Group consortium led by Lucky Cement Limited successfully acquired 75.81 percent stake in ICI Pakistan at a bid value of $152.5 million, sources said. 

ICI Pakistan Limited, listed on Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad stock exchanges, currently has 122,000 tons of Polyester Fibre Capacity, 350,000 tons of Soda Ash, 32,000 tons of other chemicals and a captive power plant with a capacity of 22MW supplying power to PSF unit.