PPC has sold the Arlington Estate, a vacant 418ha property in Harare, for a gross cash price of $27m (about R447m). The sale closes a long effort to turn land the company has owned for more than three decades into cash.
The buyer is a privately held Zimbabwean company with interests in local property. After transaction costs and taxes, PPC Zimbabwe kept $21.4m (about R354m). It has already paid out the full amount as a dividend, and PPC’s 88% stake entitles it to $17.9m, or roughly R296m at the prevailing exchange rate. In its announcement on Tuesday, the group said the disposal served its best interests because the estate holds no limestone deposits and has no use in cement production.
This was the second attempt to sell the land this year. In February, PPC agreed to sell it to Transvaal Africa for $30m (about R497m). That deal lapsed when the buyer failed to pay by the end-June deadline, despite an earlier extension that PPC had granted because of administrative delays. The new price is $3m (about R50m) lower.
| Arlington Estate | Detail |
|---|---|
| Size | 418ha, Harare |
| Acquired | 1990 |
| Seized by government | 2010 |
| Ownership restored | December 2024 |
| Failed sale (Transvaal Africa) | $30m (R497m), lapsed June 2026 |
| Completed sale | $27m (R447m) gross |
| Net proceeds | $21.4m (R354m) |
| PPC’s 88% share | $17.9m (R296m) |
PPC Zimbabwe bought the property in 1990. The Zimbabwean government took it over in 2010, during a period of compulsory acquisitions, and title was only returned to PPC in December 2024. Management then decided to sell, having concluded that the land had no strategic value to the cement operations. The lapsed agreement with Transvaal Africa had also included an undertaking that cement for any future development on the estate would come exclusively from PPC Zimbabwe.
The sale is part of a wider effort by PPC to dispose of noncore assets and focus capital on cement. The largest call on that capital is RK3, a new integrated plant in the Western Cape with a board-approved budget of R3.1bn. Construction is expected to finish in the final quarter of the 2027 financial year. The plant’s main equipment contract, worth $134m (about R2.2bn), was awarded to China’s Sinoma and is fully hedged.
Zimbabwe has become PPC’s strongest market. In the year to end-March 2026, cement volumes there rose 18.2%, and the unit generated R3.57bn in revenue and R961m in EBITDA at a margin close to 27%. It operated without debt and paid a $36m (about R596m) dividend, almost three times the $13m (about R215m) of the previous year. A gearbox failure at the Bulawayo plant in February slowed volume growth in the second half.
At group level, PPC’s revenue for that year rose 3.9% to R10.26bn, and EBITDA climbed 31% to R2.08bn. Headline earnings per share increased 25% to 50c.
The group’s latest trading update points to continued momentum. In the five months to end-August, EBITDA rose 40%, and the margin improved 6.2 percentage points to 22.1%. Group revenue grew only 1%, however. Revenue in Zimbabwe rose 4%, while cement revenue in South Africa and Botswana fell 2%; firmer pricing and a better product mix there partly offset lower volumes.
The gap between the two regions remains a feature of PPC’s results. Demand in South Africa is held back by weak infrastructure spending and competition from imported cement, while Zimbabwe’s dollar-based economy has supported both volumes and cash generation. The Arlington proceeds add to the hard-currency cash flowing from that market.
PPC will publish its interim results for the six months to end-September on 16 November.