NEWSROUND
Mannok sells to Cimsa
Cimsa, a Turkish listed global building materials company – subsidiary of global conglomerate Sabanci Holdings is buying 94.7% of Ireland-based building materials group Mannok for an overall enterprise value of €330 million. The local Mannok leadership team will retain a 5.3% interest.
The agreement, still subject to customary approvals, will see the Mannok brand retained as a growth hub for Cimsa and Sabanci in Ireland and the UK, and the business will continue to be led by local management. This agreement marks Cimsa’s
third major investment in the past three years, following recent investments in Spain and the US, and underpins its ambition to become a scale player in the UK and Irish markets. Mannok Chairman Adrian Barden said: “Cimsa and the broader Sabanci group are a superb fit for Mannok as new long term, strategic owners with excellent sustainability credentials and know-how. The Group is steeped in cement manufacture and building products and, as a diverse conglomerate, it also has interests in retail and food, important sectors for our
London merchant Hitchcock & King calls in administrators
Builders and timber merchant Hitchcock & King which trades from six branches across south and south west London has appointed Steve Absolom and Nick Holloway from Interpath Advisory as Joint Administrators of Hitchcock & King Enterprises Limited on 31 July 2024.
The company, with branches in Ashford, Burgh Heath, Fulham, Hammersmith, Streatham and Twickenham, has been trading for over 50 years, but faced difficult trading conditions in recent times, including the impact of rising costs and decreasing margins. Over recent months, The directors therefore took the difficult decision to seek the appointment of administrators. The Joint Administrators say that in recent months the directors sought to explore options, including a sale of the business, but a solvent solution was unable to be found. The business will continue to trade for a short period in order to sell the remaining stock and explore other options for the broader business. Although 37 of the Company’s employees have been retained in the short term to assist the Joint Adminstrators in trading, a further 27 members of staff have been made redundant.
Absolom, who is managing director at Interpath Advisory, said: “Whilst Hitchcock & King will remain open for business in the short term to clear through the stocks of building supplies, there’s no doubt that this is an extremely sad day for this long-running family business and its team of hard-working, loyal employees.”
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packaging business. We are very pleased that Sabanci has endorsed the Mannok brand and has agreed to back local management’s plans to accelerate our sustainability and growth ambitions.”
Umut Zenar, CEO, Cimsa said: “We believe this agreement marks the beginning of a new era for Mannok. At Cimsa our model is to back great local businesses and management, and we look forward to creating new employment opportunities in the region as we support
Mannok’s continuing growth and sustainability ambitions. Given its border location, Mannok has unique access to UK and EU markets, and we see it as a key stepping stone in expanding our footprint in Western Europe. ” Employing around 800 staff, Mannok comprises two divisions, Building Products and Packaging, focussed on the Island of Ireland and GB markets. Its key activities are the manufacture of cement, concrete, quarry and aggregate products and insulation materials, as well as the manufacture of packaging products, mainly for the food industry.
Cimsa employs over 60,000 people in 14 countries across 5 continents, while Sabanci’s business activities include cement and building materials, energy and climate technologies, industrials, banking and financial services, retail and digital sectors.
Rebound in construction output recorded for August
UK construction companies saw a sustained rebound in total busi- ness activity in August, although the pace was slower than in July. That’s according to the latest S&P Global UK Construction Purchas- ing Managers Index. New order growth was ‘robust’, underpinned by a more support- ive economic backdrop. Exactly half of the survey panel anticipate a rise in output during the year ahead, while only 9% forecast a reduction.
At 53.6 in August, the headline
index registered above the 50.0 no-change value for the sixth month running. Commercial activity was the best-performing segment (index at 53.7), despite the pace of growth slipping to its lowest since March. Civil engineering activity meanwhile expanded at only a moderate pace that was notably weaker than in July.
Residential work was the only sub-sector to gain momentum,
with growth accelerating to its fastest since September 2022. Higher levels of housing activity
were supported by improving market conditions and lower borrowing costs. Survey respond- ents suggested that improving economic conditions and greater domestic political stability had lifted customer demand. Tim Moore, Economics Direc- tor at S&P Global Market Intel- ligence, said: “Another robust expansion of incoming new work was recorded in August, high- lighting that new projects are set to support a broader rebound in construction activity. Improving sales pipelines and a turnaround in demand conditions led to a rela- tively strong degree of business optimism across the construction sector. However, some firms cited a slowdown in civil engineering activity and concerns about the outlook for infrastructure work as constraints on growth expecta- tions.”
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net September 2024
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