The Cameroonian Aluminum Company Alucam and the Cameroonian aluminium finished products firm Socatral will no longer be two separate organizations. The two entities have decided to merge. During the exceptional general meeting which was held on 30th June’20, the shareholders of the two companies adopted without reservation the only item on the agenda, namely: the merger of Alucam and Socatral.
Cathy Momha from the communications department at Alucam, explained: “This is a merger by absorption. Alucam has absorbed Socatral. Henceforth, Alucam forms a single entity. But the stakeholders are still finalizing the last elements relating to this operation. These are legal details and information systems, particularly concerning the language elements given the upcoming communication plan. For example, you have to find the name of the new entity.”
According to an Alucam executive, this is only a "regularization" of a de facto situation. "Everyone who has already visited the facilities of these two companies has realized that they occupy the same space, share the same facilities", he explains adding that it is very difficult for an external person to make the difference between two such entities.
This merger-absorption would, therefore, be part of the very nature of the activity. Indeed, Socatral is a workshop which is located just after the last Alucam workshop.
The merger should permit breath of fresh air to these two companies, in particular to Alucam which has been facing certain economic difficulties in recent years. According to the available financial statements, Alucam's equity increased from FCFA 19.217 billion in 2017 to FCFA 12.799 billion in 2018. Besides, the company achieved a deficit of 10.8 billion in 2018, after a positive result of 2.2 billion in 2017. The improvement will have only been a thinning since the company has been accumulating losses for several years already 1.870 billion FCFA in 2016, against 10.099 billion in 2015 and 8.512 billion in 2014.
Indeed, this operation is a vertical integration which will allow above all a reduction of costs thanks to better coordination of the upstream and downstream sectors. 2/3 of Alucam's production is exported while the rest is processed by Socatral to produce corrugated sheets and Alubassa into kitchen utensils for local and regional markets.
Alucam-Socatral: 360,000 tonnes of aluminium to be produced per year.
Cameroon is about to import corrugated iron sheets. This is news that should surprise more than one since it houses the first aluminium smelter in Black Africa, the Cameroonian Aluminum Company Alucam. With around 100,000 tonnes of aluminium per year, the production of Alucam (2/3 exported) is used in local units for the production of corrugated sheets (Socatral) and kitchen utensils (Alubassa).
Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, Minister of Commerce, warns: “Due to the incident at Alucam / Socatral, there is a gap between supply and demand. It is a question of temporarily opening the market to make up for the deficit in sheets.”
Responses
