Bizerte Cement Shareholders Convened for Extraordinary General Assembly
The shareholders of Bizerte Cement have been summoned for an Extraordinary General Assembly on Friday, September 27. The purpose of the meeting is to vote on the continuation of operations in accordance with the provisions of Article 388 of the Commercial Companies Code. This move confirms that the company's accounts have indeed revealed that its equity is less than half of its social capital due to cumulative losses.
The financial statements as of December 31, 2023, show equity of 21,742 MTND and carried-over losses of -185,423 MTND. This indicates that the accounts for the first half of 2024 will be marked by a significant loss. Already, the quarterly activity indicators are catastrophic, and the turnover has plummeted by 59.7% to 20,287 MTND. Clinker production was suspended throughout the second quarter of 2024 due to the lack of petroleum coke, the only possible fuel for the kiln's operation, resulting from the company's financial difficulties that prevented it from importing this material.
It is worth noting that the same article of the Commercial Companies Code states that the Extraordinary General Assembly, which has not pronounced the dissolution of the company within the year following the discovery of the losses, is required to reduce the capital by an amount of at least the losses or to proceed with a capital increase of at least the amount of these losses. Is this possible in the coming months? The future is uncertain for this cement company, which has faced a long cycle of difficulties since its introduction to the stock exchange. It needs a major investment project to restart.
