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PPC - Pretoria Portland Cement Company - PPC excels on empowerment rating PRETORIA PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY LIMITED (Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa) (Company registration number: 1892/000667/06) JSE Code: PPC ISIN: ZAE000125886 ("PPC" or "the company") PPC Excels on Empowerment Rating PPC is delighted to announce its Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) rating as audited by Empowerlogic (Pty) Ltd, a registered verification agency. The only cement manufacturer listed on the JSE since 1910 has now achieved a level 4 rating according to the Department of Trade and Industry`s (DTI) scorecard following the results of its interim BBBEE audit in March 2009. This is the highest BBBEE status to date in the cement manufacturing industry. Last year the company announced at the launch of its 15% BBBEE transaction, which positively impacts over 3 million people, that it planned to reach a level 4 rating by 2010. This achievement comes well ahead of schedule. The Empowerlogic BBBEE rating uses the black ownership flow through principle and indicates a level of black ownership rising to over 25% at the equity level which included 9% black women ownership. Other significant contributors to this rating were the company`s investment in skills development within the sector, preferential procurement and meeting employment equity objectives at all levels in the organisation. John Gomersall, CEO of PPC commented; "Many people held the view that transformation was all about the "100m dash to win the BBBEE equity race". We at PPC always believed that REAL transformation is designed to work "bottom up" by empowering our PPC people, uplifting communities, overcoming the skills barrier and investing in the development of black businesses. This approach has created meaningful transformation that starts at grassroots level as opposed to those which have focused initially on black equity transactions." It is through PPC`s philosophy of `Kambuku`, a value-based management philosophy adopted in 1998 which emphasises its people as integral to the success of everything it does, and through the organisations ongoing commitment to uplifting the communities in which it operates that it has been possible to achieve this rating. PPC`s long standing commitment to developing black businesses goes back almost three decades when it pioneered the empowerment of black industry-related entrepreneurs in the 1980`s. In addition to the appointment of Chairman Mr Bheki Sibiya at the end of last year, PPC recently announced the appointment of a further two black non-executive directors to the Board last month. This brings the number of black non-executive directors to six out of a total of eight, of which two are black women non-executive directors. Gomersall added; "PPC has always maintained that transformation goes beyond a scorecard and into the domain of making a real difference to the lives of all our stakeholders. We are proud of this industry leading achievement because of our broad based view to sustainable empowerment. This is why we have made transformation part of the DNA of our business for almost 2 decades" Sandton 01 April 2009 Sponsor Merrill Lynch South Africa (Pty) Limited For further enquiries contact: PPC +27 11 386 9000 John Gomersall Kevin Odendaal College Hill +27 11 447 3030 Jacques de Bie +27 82 691 5384 Nandile Ngubentombi +27 82 825 8004 Date: 01/04/2009 08:00:00 Supplied by www.sharenet.co.za Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited (`JSE`). The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or completeness of the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers, employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature, howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on, information disseminated through SENS.
