Island Cement Ltd. has put in a bid to buy Maxcem Ltd. in an attempt to take over the running of the Dockyard Cement Facility, The Royal Gazette can exclusively reveal.

Current leaseholder Maxcem's six-month deal expires at the end of December and Island Cement wants to join forces with Maxcem to lease and operate the plant at Dockyard.

But no decision has been announced by the facility's landlord West End Development Company (Wedco) about who has been awarded the new contract.

Island Cement's president Myron Piper said that his company submitted an offer to Maxcem's president Dennis Correia to purchase all of Maxcem's outstanding shares and had been in talks with Mr. Correia about the bid.

Island Cement, which is backed by major shareholder the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU), which has a 20-percent stake in the company, submitted a proposal to Government to lease and operate the plant at Dockyard in June, but Wedco granted Maxcem a six-month extension to its contract.

However, Mr. Piper believes a merger between Island Cement and Maxcem would be a win-win situation for both companies.

"Wedco and the Bermuda Government's initial RFP (request for proposal) for the lease of the cement facility encouraged participation from qualified Bermudian corporate shareholders, reflective of our Island's diverse culture - Island Cement and Maxcem merging our resources would further shore up that Government mandate," he said.

"Our corporate endeavour is being supported by key Government stakeholders, BIU members and Government supporters."

Mr. Piper, who said in July that Island Cement ticks all the boxes for Government's requirements for a 100-percent Bermudian-owned and operated company, as well as fulfilling its mandate for black empowerment, reckons the consolidation of the two companies' supply resources would provide a constant supply of cement to Bermuda for the long term.

Pooling their resources, Mr. Piper claims they would be able to use Island Cement's suppliers Titan Cement - which has proposed to supply 60,000 metric tonnes of bulk cement per year to the company over ten years - or LaFrage. The two companies are respectively the largest and sixth-largest multi-national cement manufacturers in the world.

Otherwise the merged companies could use Maxcem's current partner, Cemex, which holds a major stake in Maxcem, to provide cement at an affordable price to the Island's booming construction industry.

"There are no other reliable supply options for Bermuda," he said.

"Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela recently nationalised his country's cement industry and, in the process, Cemex lost its Venezuela plant which supplied Bermuda and many Caribbean islands.

He added that Cemex appeared to now be supplying Bermuda from Florida.

Mr. Piper, who said he had heard nothing from Government since submitting the proposal in June, said it made good business sense for Maxcem to consider Island Cement's bid and increase the company's shareholder base with approximately 4,300 members to follow Government's intent to ensure its economic empowerment criteria does not just benefit the elite or a consolidated few individuals.

"It makes sense to create an alliance as opposed to going at it separately because of our cement suppliers and between us we have got the best options available," he said.

"From a business point of view it was a good time to make an approach to them and we were trying to make sure that we have a chance to get involved in the deal.

"We have not set any deadlines, but obviously we are trying to get this resolved before the lease is agreed upon.

"We expect to receive the Premier, the Cabinet and Government's full support in our endeavour based on the merits of our proposal."

Jim Butterfield, former majority shareholder, along with six other shareholders of Bermuda Cement Company (BCC), which had been operating the facility at Dockyard for 40 years, agreed to sell their stakes in the company to Mr. Correia, husband of former PLP candidate Jane Correia, giant cement manufacturer Cemex, Christopher Shanks and Paul Simons after five years of protracted discussions.

As of January this year, Mr. Correia was the majority stakeholder in the new company Maxcem with 48,000 shares, followed by Cemex with 46,353 shares, while Mr. Shanks owned 10,800 shares, Mr. Simons 2,745 shares, Michael and Anette Bierman 5,622 shares and 3,815 shares respectively, SAL Ltd. 2,019 shares and Fiduciary Partners 646 shares, according to Register of Shareholders records.

Mr. Butterfield decided to sell up because he thought it was too expensive to meet Wedco's demands to demolish the silos and rebuild the plant at a new site.

There was no response from Government, Wedco or Maxcem at the time of going to press.