OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 March 2008 was announced, that LSR Group proceeds with the acquisition of OJSC Obukhiv Porous Concrete Plant in Ukraine as part of geographical diversification strategy. LSR Group one of the leading real estate developers and building materials producers in St Petersburg and the Leningrad region , announced that the Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee has granted permission to Aeroc International AS, a subsidiary of LSR Group, for the acquisition of a 97% stake in OJSC Obukhiv Porous Concrete Plant, a major aerated concrete producer in Ukraine. The ?30 million acquisition was approved by LSR’s Board in February 2008 and is expected to be completed in the summer 2008.

OJSC Obukhiv Porous Concrete Plant (OPCP) is a leader in the Ukrainian autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) market and the key AAC supplier in the Kiev region today. According to the All-Ukrainian Union of Building Materials and Products Manufacturers, OPCP has an 18% share of the Ukrainian AAC market and over 50% of the market in the Kiev region. OPCP is located in the city of Obukhiv, 40 km from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. In 2007, the company reported output and sales of 150,000 cub.m. As part of an existing contract with Wehrhahn, the world leader in the production of aerated concrete equipment, OPCP is completing a project aimed at increasing its annual capacity to 350,000 cub.m.

OPCP is LSR Group’s second aerated concrete project in Ukraine. The first project – a new AAC plant with the capacity of 400,000 cub.m a year – is under construction in Berezan, 70 km from Kiev, and is due to be completed in the summer of 2008.  The equipment is supplied by HESS AAC-Systems, a well-known German-Dutch manufacturer of AAC equipment.

Commenting on the development, Igor Levit, CEO of LSR Group, has said:

“We consider the Ukrainian market to be very attractive due to the steady growth in the volumes of construction and building materials consumption as well as the dynamics of housing price growth. The acquisition of OJSC Obukhiv Porous Concrete Plant by LSR Group, combined with the plant’s upgrading up to the capacity of  350,000 cub.m per annum, as well as the completion of a new 400,000 cub.m plant that we are planning to make operational in the summer of 2008, will enable our company to occupy the dominating position in the Kiev region and become a leader in  the Ukrainian aerated concrete market as a whole.”

Consequently, the aggregated production capacity of Aeroc International in Ukraine is expected to exceed 700,000 cub.m a year. The company is planning to make full use of the synergy of the two plants through promoting and distributing AAC products under a single brand - AEROC. In addition, the new acquisition will enable the two Ukrainian plants to be specialized in particular products to more flexibly respond to different customers’ needs.