Sources: Loma Negra Cia Industria Argentina SA, Buenos Aires; InterCement, Sao Paulo; CP staff
Argentina’s top cement producer raised nearly $1.1 billion in an initial public offering of American Depositary Shares (ADS), trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol LOMA. The early-November IPO saw the sale of 53,530,000 million ADS, priced at $19 each and representing five ordinary shares as traded on Bolsa y Mercados Argentinos S.A., Loma Negra’s home exchange.
Loma Negra is one of the top businesses in the portfolio of private equity-backed InterCement, which has upward of 30 million tons of cement capacity across mills in four South American and three African countries, along with administrative offices in Austria, Brazil and Portugal. Loma Negra is Argentina’s lone national, vertically integrated producer, with six cement plants and 9 million-plus tons’ capacity; five cement distribution facilities; one quarry; and, six ready mixed concrete plants operating as Lomax. It joins Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. and CRH Plc as foreign heavy building materials operators trading ADS or American Depositary Receipts on the NYSE. IPO underwriters included BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.