Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much CDC Group have invested in ARM Cement; how much of that investment has been lost or written down; and on what dates the losses and write-downs were recognised.

In 2016 CDC made a $144 million equity investment into ARM Cement, a publicly listed cement business with operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. ARM Cement was an investment with high development impact potential. The aim was to support the growth of a regional manufacturer and by so doing reduce the cost and increase the availability of cement across the East African region, creating jobs and spurring infrastructure development.

Due to a number of factors, CDC’s investment in ARM was ultimately not successful and the CDC investment has been written off. Write-downs were accounted for in 2016 (December); 2017 (March, June, September, December) and 2018 (June).