PPC enters into standby underwriting agreement in support of R4bn rights offer

The share price of JSE-listed cement producer PPC rose by 8.9% on Monday morning after the company announced that it had entered into a standby underwriting agreement to support its proposed R4-billion rights offer. PPC had appointed a syndicate of banks, including Standard Bank South Africa, Nedbank, Absa Bank and Rand Merchant Bank, as joint bookrunners to lead its proposed rights offer process. Standard Bank was appointed sole global coordinator of the rights offer.    The joint bookrunners provided PPC a standby underwriting commitment of R4-billion in relation to the proposed rights offer. This would be replaced by a formal underwriting commitment in due course, subject to the satisfactory fulfilment of the conditions precedent.