HARARE- Dangote Cement, a Nigeria Stock Exchange listed cement producing company,  has joined the race to acquire PPC bringing to 3, the number of firms offers received to date. it is believed other players such as Larfage are also mulling throwing in a bid. In a cautionary statement released by the ZSE on Thursday, PPC said it has received a non-binding communication of interest from Dangote Cement Plc with respect to the acquisition of the entire share capital of PPC. PPC is a JSE and ZSE listed cement manufacturer and distributor with 10 manufacturing facilities across Africa and 3 milling depots including one in Zimbabwe. It is one of Africa’s largest cement manufacturing companies. A fortnight ago Fairfax an investment holding company listed on the Toronto stock exchange offered to buy R2 million in issued share capital at price of R 5.75 a share. The offer was however conditional as Fairfax said they will only acquire the stake if PPC accepts an earlier offer by South African competitor Afrisam, to merge its operations. While PPC has been desperate to unrest its  legacy debts and finance its expansion, it is currently believed not to be firmly interested in the offers made so far which it says grossly undervalues the company, although deliberations are ongoing on the revised offers. The company however has little room to manouvre given that it is trading at par to its borrowing limits and has less allowance to fund its operations through debt. This development has been the basis of the takeover bids emerging in the markets. The coming in of Dangote brings in a new dimension in that Dangote Cement is the largest African producer with milling capacity of 46 million tonnes therefore a deal with Dangote brings in the scale and clout. On the other hand Dangote has curved its name as an east African giant which when combined to PPC a Southern Africa creates an African cement unicorn.