Financier Dermot Desmond is believed to have taken a stake in Ecocem Materials, the fast-growing low-carbon cement maker founded by Irishman Donal O’Riain and backed by Saint-Gobain,the French cement company.
It is understood that IIU, Desmond’s private equity company, moved in recent weeks to acquire as much as 11% of the company.
Founded in 2003, Ecocem manufactures cement from granulated blast-furnace slag, a byproduct of steel production. The company had sales of €63m in 2015, according to its most recent accounts.
Saint-Gobain holds a 30% stake in Ecocem, with a further 31 % held by private investors including Co Louth businessman Brendan McDonald, the Durkan Group and builder Ged Pierse. The O’Riain family holds the remaining 39%.
It is understood that Desmond might have purchased the Durkan stake. Efforts to contact Durkan Investments were unsuccessful. Contacted by The Sunday Times, Ecocem declined to comment.
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Desmond joins the shareholder register as the company cranks up its expansion. It is investing €30m in a venture with ArcelorMittal, the world’s large steel producer, to build a new plant at Dunkirk. Ecocem will hold a 70% stake. It has three plants at Ringsend, Dublin, Moerdijk in the Netherlands and Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseilles, France. The new plant will bring capacity to 2m tonnes.
The company also opened an import terminal at Runcorn, on the Manchester Ship Canal, last August and added a second terminal at Sheerness, Kent, part of a joint venture with Peel Ports.
Ecocem is appealing against a decision by planners in Vallejo, California, to refuse permission to build a €45m grinding mill on the city’s waterside. Orcem Americas, Ecocem’s US subsidiary, hopes to construct a deepwater berth to service the mill.