In total, there were 12 companies that bought the US$5,000 bid to obtain confidential information on a possible association with Ancap for the portland and lime business.within the 17 firms that have shown interest in the business, informed the vice president of the state entity, Diego Durand, to The Observer.
The deadline for accessing technical information, centralized in a data room installed by the company in November, expired March 15and the coordination of visits to the plant continues until April 29, a term extended by the global pandemic situation, explained Durand. So far at least three companies visited the cement plantsand the lime one located in Treinta y Tres.
Durand stressed that the idea is not to privatize, but “save” Ancap’s portland businesswith annual losses of an average of US$ 10 million. In addition, he stated that the association will reduce production costswhich will result in an rfuel cost reduction.
Ancap’s vice president explained that due to a confidentiality agreement, unable to disclose the names of the companies that advanced their interest in the portland associationalthough he indicated that there national companies with international capital, and international companies without capital in Uruguay.
The former captain of the sky blue, Diego Lugano, one of the owners of Cemento Charrúa –together with Diego Godín–, visited the plant in Paysandú but on that occasion he arrived together with other businessmen from the Brazilian company Hipermix. There were also visits from Cielo Azul and Cementos Artigas, the other two strongest players in the Uruguayan market.
In Cielo Azul they consider that the Ancap plants (Minas and Paysandú) are not in poor conditionbut they all require a large monetary investmentcompany sources informed The Observer.
Businesses continuing after April 29 will be presented with information with a greater level of detail about the operations and the businessand the terms of the selection process and conditions of associationall under the Uruguayan legislation of public companies.
