Colombia’s Argos closes 2012 with 25% rise in EBITDA

Argos, Colombia’s largest cement producer, recorded a 25 per cent YoY rise in EBITDA in 2012 and an 82 per cent rise in operating income. The group, which also operates in the Caribbean and US, reported EBITDA of COP791,190m and operating income was COP414,566m.

After incorporating the cement and concrete assets acquired in the southeastern US, consolidated revenues reached COP4,380,393m.

"We traded in 10.8Mt of cement and 8.5Mm3 of concrete in Colombia, the Caribbean and the United States, making significant progress in sales volumes. These increases, supported by a differentiating value proposition, increased penetration and sales of products with higher value boosted the economic success, "said Jorge Mario Velasquez, president of Argos.

In Colombia, the company benefitted particularly from the dynamic infrastructure sector and to strengthen its leadership position, the board approved investment in downtown expansion. In the US, it successfully integrated the cement and concrete assets purchased from Lafarge in late 2011. In the Caribbean, it further expanded, starting concrete operations in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Suriname and being awarded key contracts such as the Metro and the expansion of the Panama Canal.

Jorge Mario Velasquez added: "The company closed a great 2012 and is looking forward growth prospects in most of the 11 countries where it operates. We will concentrate on deepening our segmentation strategy based on providing customers with products and other value added services. In that line and the result of our innovation programme, we developed a number of new products such as coloured concrete and mortars, porous and high performance. "