Cedar Holdings Group Co Ltd signed a Sales and Purchase Agreement with Stemcor Global Holdings Ltd at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan 21, to acquire the entirety of the group’s share capital, the company reported in a statement.
Stemcor, once controlled by the Oppenheimer family, faced insolvency as the company struggled to refinance a $1.15bn syndicated trade finance loan in 2014 and service the $1.3bn debt accumulated in the purchase of an Indian iron ore mine.
US distressed investment fund Apollo Global Management and other former creditors of Stemcor became the company’s largest shareholders after purchasing the company’s debt in the secondary market and agreeing to swap the debt for equity in July 2015.
According to Stemcor’s 2018 earnings report, the company sourced and delivered 3mn mt of steel and raw materials, down from 3.7mn mt the prior year, and recorded a gross margin of 5.24pc compared with 5.7pc in 2017 on a total revenue of $1.927bn compared with $1.757bn in the prior year.
Cedar is a privately-owned commodities investment business, founded and headquartered in Guangzhou, China. The company ranked 301st in the Fortune Global Top 500 for 2019 with a revenue of $40.6bn, according to the company’s own press release.
The transaction is subject to various completion conditions and approvals, which Stemcor and Cedar will jointly work on to achieve during H1 2020.