Nigerian industrial conglomerate Dangote Cement has acquired a 45% stake in Sephaku Cement, which is building a R3bn plant in North West.

The figures involved were not disclosed, but Sephaku Cement chairman Lelau Mohuba said the partnership would provide the necessary funding and technical expertise to expedite the construction of the cement plant, without affecting its status as a black-owned and controlled company.

“It will be the most modern cement plant in SA and will set the benchmark for emissions as well as power and energy efficiencies. A number of existing South African cement plants, some of which are in excess of 40 years old, have inefficient and uneconomical capacity,” Mohuba said.

Dangote Industries president Aliko Dangote said the partnership with Sephaku provided an early entry for the group into the South African cement market with a group of like-minded entrepreneurs.

“Working together will provide a win-win solution to delivering cost effective product at world class levels of energy efficiency and emissions,” Dangote said.

Dangote Cement plans to list on the Nigerian stock exchange, and is also targeting a GDR listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The Nigerian company recently commissioned two cement plants with a combined capacity of 8million tons a year.

It also has two import terminals, located in Lagos and Port Harcourt, which have production lines to supply cement in 50kg and 1 500kg bags and recently placed an order for three new plants, totalling 16-million tons in capacity, for Nigeria and 2,6-million tons for Senegal.

Sephaku Cement CEO Pieter Fourie said construction of the plant was on course as all the funds needed had been raised.

The company, a subsidiary of Sephaku Holdings Limited, had raised 60% of the funding from a consortium of banks led by Investec and 40% from the company’s own equity. “We have decided to cancel plans to list on the stock market in order to raise capital. We are now fully funded and there are no immediate plans to list,” Fourie said.

The construction of the plant is expected to start in the third quarter of this year and at least 300 permanent jobs would be created once the plant was completed by mid-2010. The plant will have an annual capacity of 2,2-million tons.

“We are in final negotiations with a South African construction company to build the plant and equipment and machinery will be supplied by Danish company FL Smidth,” Fourie said.