Tanga Cement board chairman resigns

A statement by the cement manufacturer to the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) said the Deputy Chairman, Mr Patrick Rutabanzibwa had replaced Mr Masha in board changes that took effect immediately.

“Shareholders are advised that Tanga Cement PLC announced today that the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Lawrence Masha, resigned from his position with effect from December 15, 2022, having spent nine years on the Board of the Company, to be able to commit to a new opportunity,”  Tanga Cement said in a statement to the DSE.

His exit from the board comes in a year that saw a flop of Sh137.33 billion takeover deal from the parent company of a fellow local cement maker Twiga Cement, which wanted to acquire a controlling stake at Tanga Cement.

In October 2021, Scancem International DA (Scancem) – a subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement AG, which owns Twiga Cement – and AfriSam Mauritius Investment Holdings Limited, owner of Tanga Cement, issued a joint statement that they had finalised the terms upon which the former would acquire a 68.33 percent stake in Tanga Cement.

However a year later, in October 2022 Fair Competition Tribunal (FCT) blocked the planned merger because it was contrary to the law as it would have created a position of market dominance by the merging firms in a post-merger scenario.

Tanga Cement whose stocks are currently traded at Sh1, 100 per share announced a profit for the first time since 2016, at Sh3.54 billion net profit in the year that ended December 2021.

The firm did not have a good year in 2022 because of the market headwinds, causing profits to nosedive.

By September 2022, the manufacturer revealed that it has reduced it’s a loss to Sh1.41 billion, from a net loss of Sh2.44 billion that was recorded at the end of the second quarter in June 2022.

The former minister and Member of Parliament for the Nyamagana constituency Mr Masha is currently listed as the founding partner and managing partner – Gabriel & Co. Attorneys at Law.

He previously had served at the Home Affairs ministry for two-four years, first as a deputy minister from October 2006-February 2008 and later as a minister for two years from February 2008 to October 2010 before he was left out when President Jakaya Kikwete formed a new Cabinet on his re-election for a fresh five-year term.