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BCP Bank and OCP Increase Capital, Swap Shares

14 February, 2009 11:45:00 The North Africa Journal
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image New BCP CEO Benchaaboun and OCP CEO Terrab closing the deal

The Moroccan phosphate and fertilizer giant relinquished 5.88% of its capital to Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), in exchange for a 6.62% equity participation in that bank.

The share swap was officially formalized on January 12, 2009, an event qualified by finance minister Salah-Eddine Mezouar as historic and unprecedented. The values in this transaction are the equivalent of MAD 5 billion spent by BCP and MAD 1 billion spent by OCP, money which will be captured by the Moroccan treasury since the two companies are state owned. Continue here.

Comments (3 posted):

hatim on 29 April, 2009 05:36:44
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OCP is most important activity in our country , it is olso engineering side of technical side as modern holding . It is good to have partner ship with financial group as BCP , it is better to have real partner ship with small technical company as soutraitance and possible partenariat with positif specialised company .these company can collaborate to better working for process in industrial and managment of ocp we can see in usa this collaboration as nasa do or boeing
we have not only finance as solution , i'm sure that humain is olso true solution for growing.
roger on 12 May, 2009 12:04:25
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I am trying to understand the fertilizer industry. Why does OCP drop the price of phosphate so low. The major producers of potash slashed output to maintain high prices above US 750 per ton. OCP has dropped rock phosphate right down below US 150 per ton. This seems like an unintelligent strategy. Any reason? thanks.
Arezki Daoud on 13 May, 2009 10:08:29
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Roger, I can only speculate that in light of intense competition from the supply side, OCP was forced to reduce its prices to undermine its competitors and be able to resume its activities. The company faced a rather drastic environment and was forced to shut down in the third and fourth quarters of 2008 and the only hope to save jobs and resume operations was to find buyers for its products beginning March 2009. The focus has been on big buyers like India and Pakistan and the only way to secure these markets was to slash prices so deep. Also, OCP has taken advantage of Morocco's own stimulus package, providing all sorts of tax breaks and financial incentives for companies facing operational troubles. This may have meant that a great deal of labor cost, energy cost, etc shifted to the government, while also getting money to fund marketing campaigns abroad. I think this is probably the best I can think of when I think of OCP's current business environment.

Regards,
Arezki Daoud
The North Africa Journal

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