HeidelbergCement has reported that it closed the divestment of its 50 per cent share in Ciment Québec and its minority participation in Syria in December 2018. In addition, a former cement plant area in the Cairo metropolitan area, Egypt, has been auctioned and the divestment of its Ukrainian business has been signed. The closure of both the latter transactions is expected to occur in 2019.

These divestments have a total value exceeding EUR150m and is expected to have a slightly positive effect on operating EBITDA in 2019 compared with 2018, stated the company in a press release.

"We deliver on our action plan and have accelerated our efforts to improve our portfolio and generate cash in order to speed up deleveraging," said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement. "For 2018, we expect to realise about EUR500m in disposal proceeds and we are well on our way to reach our target of EUR1.5bn by the end of 2020. We remain committed to improving shareholder value and maintaining a solid investment grade rating," he said.

At its Capital Markets Day in summer 2018, the company announced its goal to reduce complexity and risk by disposing of non-core businesses, market positions with high risks or limited growth potential and idle assets. A further action plan announced in November 2018 stated that HeidelbergCement would accelerate disposals and review further divestment potentials with the goal to reach or even exceed the upper end of the original target, to generate proceeds in the range of EUR1-1.5bn in the period from 2018 to 2020.