Lafarge Africa expects to generate cost saving synergies of N9 billion ($46 million) over the next three years in Nigeria, after its parent firm agreed to merge its business with Holcim in a plan to create the world’s biggest cement maker, it said.
Switzerland’s Holcim and France’s Lafarge agreed terms for their plan to create the world’s top cement business in February.
“We should be able to achieve around 10 percent (savings) this year, the remaining is split to around 33 percent for next year, 33 percent in 2017 and the remaining by the first half of 2018,” Lafarge Africa Chief Finance Officer Anders Kristiansson told an analysts call, estimating 2015 savings at between 700 million to 900 million naira.
Lafarge Africa also on Friday posted nine-month profit before tax of 33.67 billion naira, down from 38.09 billion naira last year.