Special Situation: Loma Negra IPO

Article Excerpt

LOMA NEGRA (ADR) $25 (New York symbol LOMA) is the leading cement and concrete producer in Argentina, with about a 45% market share. Its quarries in the country hold sufficient reserves for more than 100 years of production. In addition, Loma Negra is one of the leading cement manufacturers in Paraguay. The company is controlled by Portugal cement producer InterCement Group, the world’s tenth largest cement producer. On October 31, 2017, Loma Negra began trading on the New York exchange. Through an IPO, the company sold 50.2 million American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) at $19 U.S. a share. Each ADR represents five common shares of the company stock traded on the Bolsas y Mercados Argentinos (BYMA) exchange in Buenos Aires. The IPO handed Loma Negra the $350 million U.S. it needs to more than double the capacity of its L’Amali cement plant in the Buenos Aires region. That would lift the company’s output to 4.9 million tons by 2020 and lower its operating costs. Loma…