By Denise A. Valdez, Reporter

ABACORE Capital Holdings, Inc. is building a P1-billion cement plant and silo through a joint venture agreement with Honghui Pioneer S-Cement International, Inc.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange yesterday, the listed company said its board of directors had approved the joint venture agreement between its subsidiary Omnilines Energy International Network, Inc. and Honghui Pioneer S-Cement, which covers the establishment and operation of the cement plant project.

It likewise approved the sale of the company’s land in Mabini, Batangas to a subsidiary of Honghui Pioneer S. Cement, Lifthigh Development Corp. The transaction is valued at P225 million.

The board also authorized AbaCore to invest and buy shares in Honghui Pioneer S-Cement worth up to 10% of its authorized capital stock.

The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Montemayor Aggregates & Mining Corp., has also been granted authority to sell a 50,000-square meter property to local real estate developer Carino Development and Management Corp. The land is priced at P5,000 per square meter for a total of P250 million for the sale.

“[The] transactions are geared towards the implementation of the board’s annual dividend policy of up to 10% for the benefit of all shareholders,” AbaCore said in the disclosure.

It noted the sale of land to Lifthigh, the acquisition of shares in Honghui Pioneer S-Cement, and the property sale to Carino Development are still subject to conditions precedent in the contract signed by the parties.

Last year, AbaCore also announced it was selling a 30,117-square meter land in Batangas to Subic-based Premiere-Slag International, Inc. for P225.88 million. It said then that it was subscribing to 10% of Premiere-Slag’s proposed authorized capital stock of P1.02 billion for P102 million, with the intention of being a direct owner of the cement manufacturer.

AbaCore’s current business interests span across financial services, real estate, gold mining and coal mining. Its attributable earnings in the nine-months to September 2019 stood at P231.67 million, down 27% from a year ago amid a 14% decline in revenues to P334.58 million.

Shares in AbaCore at the stock exchange were flat on Thursday at P0.87 each.