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What SigmaRoc does
SigmaRoc PLC (LON:SRC) is a construction materials company with a buy-and-build strategy focusing on assets in the UK and Northern Europe.
Founded in 2016, the firm looks to create value by purchasing assets in the fragmented construction materials market and forming them into larger groups to create efficiencies.
These assets are segmented into regional ‘platforms’: Ronez, PPG, South West and Benelux.
What it owns
The company’s portfolio includes
• Ronez: A concrete and asphalt firm based in the Channel Islands consisting of the St John’s Quarry in Jersey and Les Vardes Quarry and Vale Castle in Guernsey
• Allen Concrete: A precast concrete product maker with plants in Surrey and Northamptonshire
• Poundfield Products: Suffolk-based precast and prestressed concrete manufacturer
• CCP Building Products: Supplier of concrete and aggregates (materials including sand, gravel and crushed stone). Has manufacturing facilities in North West England and North Wales
• Foelfach Quarry: Crushed aggregate and stone quarry in Carmarthenshire, Wales, containing some of the home nation’s highest quality aggregate reserves. The quarry also produces high-polished stone, a valuable material for road surfacing
• GD Harries (GDH): 40% stake in GDH, one of Wales’s largest independent suppliers of aggregates. Operates seven hardstone quarries, six concrete plants, three asphalt plants, a wharf operation and four road-contracting units.
Carrières du Hainaut (CDH). the cornerstone of our Benelux platform, which comprises operations at CDH and Stone Holdings. CDH presently produce around 900,000 square metres of high quality Belgian blue stone per year.
How it’s doing
At the beginning of February, the company revealed that it expects to report results for 2020 that are ahead of current market expectations.
The group said the strong trading reported in its December market update continued through to the end of the year.
SigmaRoc expects to report revenues for 2020 of around £124mln, up 77% year-on-year, while underlying earnings (EBITDA) are expected to be 54% higher than the year at before at £23.8mln.
In March, the company said it was taking control of all the quarrying operations at its CDH business in Belgium.
This will lay the groundwork for a major push into the European aggregates market, added the AIM-listed building materials and quarrying group.
SigmaRoc acquired CDH in 2019 and as well as producing highly-prized Belgium Blue Stone, the operation also had a standard construction aggregates arm run by LafargeHolcim.
The agreement sees SigmaRoc take over those operations, a move that it said puts in a far stronger position to become a large-scale supplier in the Benelux aggregates market.
What the boss says: Max Vermorken, chief executive
“When we acquired CDH, we saw the potential to unlock significant added value from the legacy arrangements with LafargeHolcim.
“With the assumption of control over the aggregate production assets, we get one step closer to fully benefitting from the potential CDH has to offer and this intermediary step will allow us to be well prepared to establish ourselves as a major supplier of aggregates in the Benelux market by the end of 2024.”
What the broker says: Liberum
Liberum raised its share price target to 81p from 73p on the back of the Lafarge deal to reflect the earnings enhancement.
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