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- Boral (BLD) is exiting the United States after announcing it will sell its North American Fly Ash business for US$755 million (A$1 billion)
- The ASX-200 lister is selling the business arm to Eco Material Technologies following a slew of other investments from Boral as it steps away from its North American businesses
- Boral CEO and Managing Director Zlatko Todorcevski says the Fly Ash sale follows a “rigorous and competitive” process to dermine the best outcome for the wider business
- The company will hold on to the proceeds as surplus capital while it determines the best way to return the value to shareholders
- Shares in Boral close 1.62 per cent higher this afternoon at $6.27
Building material giant Boral (BLD) is officially exiting the United States after announcing it will sell its North American Fly Ash business for US$755 million (A$1 billion).
The sale marks the final divestment of the ASX 200-lister’s US assets, meaning it is now free to focus purely on its Australian construction materials business.
Boral will divest the business arm to Eco Material Technologies following a slew of other investments from Boral as it slowly stepped away from its North American businesses. The billion-dollar price tag takes the total proceeds from Boral’s divestment of its North American assets to over $4 billion.
Boral CEO and Managing Director Zlatko Todorcevski said the Fly Ash sale follows a “rigorous and competitive” process to determine the best outcome for the wider business in relation to its fly ash assets.
“For Boral’s shareholders, we have now unlocked substantial value through the successful divestment program,” Mr Todorcevski said.
“Together with the sale of the North American Building Products business and our stake in Meridian Brick, following the finalisation of this transaction, we will have divested the North American businesses for more than A$4 billion (US$3 billion).
“This is a significant milestone that supports our strategy to refocus on our construction materials business in Australia.”
He said Boral had owned and operated the fly ash business in the US for some 40 years.
As it stands, there seems to be no clear plan for what Boral plans to do with the proceeds from the sale; the company today said in an announcement to the ASX it would hold on to the proceeds as surplus capital while it determined the best way to return the value to shareholders.
The fly ash assets sale is still subject to certain conditions and approvals, but Boral said it expected the transaction to be completed before the end of the 2022 financial year.
Fly ash is a by-product of coal combustion. It can be combined with concrete mixes to increase the strength and segregation of the concrete while making it easier to pump.
Shares in Boral closed 1.62 per cent higher this afternoon at $6.27. The company has a $6.9 billion market cap.
