USD1.8M India Sales Agreement Signed

RNS Number : 1554W

Fox Marble Holdings PLC

07 February 2017

 

07 February 2017

Fox Marble Holdings plc

("Fox Marble" or the "Company")

US$1.8 million sale and purchase agreement for Marble obtained from India

Fox Marble, the AIM listed company focused on marble quarrying and finishing in Kosovo and the Balkans region, announces that is has entered into a US$1.8m per annum sale and purchase agreement with Mahadev Marmo PVT Ltd ('Mahadev'), India's second largest green marble export house, following the satisfactory delivery and completion of a block marble sample order, which was shipped in December 2016. This order and sales agreement marks the Company's first customer and entry into India and is in line with Fox Marble's international expansion strategy as it positions itself as a leading low cost marble production, processing and distribution company globally.

In light of this new agreement, the Company has increased its estimate of its order book in 2017 to €4.1m.

Sample order shipped

Following an inspection of the quarry, Mahadev paid for three blocks of Fox Marble's Illirico Selene (silver grey) block marble.  This order was shipped in December 2016 from Fox Marble's newest quarry - the Malesheva quarry in Kosovo and arrived in India early this year. The blocks were processed in the Mahadev facility in Udaipur.

Sale and Purchase agreement

In November 2016 Fox Marble completed a full Sale and Purchase Deed of agreement with Mahadev to supply a minimum quantity of its Illirico Selene marble over a three year period valued at approximately US$1.8 million per year, subject to satisfactory receipt and inspection of the sample order, which has now taken place.  It is anticipated that the block marble will be shipped at the rate of approximately 1,000 tonnes per month once Fox Marble quarry operations re-open in March 2017, following the annual scheduled winter shutdown (January - March) due to the usual cold weather conditions.

Fox Marble, CEO Chris Gilbert, commented: "This new sales order and sales agreement marks our first move into the significant and potentially lucrative Indian marble market. After a marketing drive in country, we were delighted to see commercial traction and demand for our marble product as a new and exciting stone.  This new relationship with Mahadev has been the result of many months of work to establish a secure supply chain in India and we look forward to working with them during the course of 2017, where we anticipate receiving further significant orders."

Mahadev Marmo PVT Ltd 

The company was established in 1988 by Shri Shankar Singh Sisodia and has an excellent track record in supplying premium natural stones to National and International Markets.  Notably the Mahadev Marmo group of Companies is India's second largest Green Marble Export House. The Company is headquartered at Udaipur in Rajasthan-the Western State of India, which is the hub of the stone industry.

Mahadev owns fully mechanised developed quarries in Udaipur, the heart of Aravali Mountains range quarrying region, and a Black Galaxy quarry at ONGOLE in Andhra Pradesh. It also has the most modern, environment friendly, versatile & high capacity machinery, The company has built a state of the art factory at Udaipur with an annual production capacity of 100,000 ton marble blocks and 125,000 sq.m. of slabs.

Its products are exported to Italy, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Japan, America, and Middle East etc. Some of the prestigious projects in which its products have been used include the Hotel Micaso, Johor Baru, Malaysia, Rasa Shangri La, Kota Kinabala & Star City, Kualalumpur, Raniwara as well as the Mandarin Orientale, Kualalumpur, the Pantai Plaza, Kualalumpur and the Colmer Tropicale, Bukittinggi, Malaysia.

Shankar Singh Sisodia of Mahadev commented, "Equally we are pleased to be working with a prestigious company such as Fox Marble which supplies high grade marble from Europe.  The Indian market has always been welcoming of marble product from other parts of Europe, therefore I am confident that the demand for materials from Fox Marble will likely be high."

For more information on Fox Marble please visit www.foxmarble.net  or contact:

Fox Marble Holdings plc
Chris Gilbert, Chief Executive Officer	Tel: [phone]
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad) Liam Murray	Tel: [phone]
Brandon Hill Capital (Broker)
Oliver Stansfield (CEO)	Tel: [phone]
Yellow Jersey PR
Felicity Winkles Francesca Hillier	Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors

Fox Marble Holdings Plc is an AIM quoted natural stone extraction Company operating in Kosovo and the Balkans region, with headquarters in the United Kingdom.

The Company has 40 year mining licences for six separate marble quarries of which three are now in production and completed a maiden JORC resource indicating an in-situ valuation of approximately Euro 16.5 billion. Established in 2011, Fox Marble has access to over 300 million cubic metres (over 1bn tons) of premium quality marble.

In addition, Fox Marble has rights to extract marble from two further premium quality marble quarries, at Drini and at Malesheva in Kosovo, which is in full production, and from the Prilep Quarry in Macedonia which is also in full production and, one of only two sources worldwide of the highly prized white Sivec marble.

Forward Looking Statements

Although any forward looking statements contained in this announcement are based upon what the directors believe to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with such forward looking statements. 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

 

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