Cement News tagged under: corporate

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Lafarge 1H net profit down

08 September 2005, Published under Cement News

Lafarge said its first-half net profit fell by 18% to EUR359m on difficult market conditions in Brazil, Malaysia, Germany and South Korea.  The company said current operating income declined by 7% to EUR837m compared to EUR903m a year ago, and by 9.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis against what it said had been "a very strong half" in 2004. Lafarge said a sharp decline of the German market had hurt its roofing business as operating profit of German operations fell by EUR31m.  Se...

Boral attractive, but near-term bid talk seen overdone

08 September 2005, Published under Cement News

A run of takeovers among global building products groups could deter any near-term bid for Australia’s Boral Ltd, despite a sharp price spike on takeover speculation, fund managers and analysts said.   Shares in Australia’s second-largest building products group hit a record A$8.11 on talk that the company, which has a market value of A$4.6bn ($3.5bn), could be a target for larger peers such as Lafarge SA or Saint-Gobain   The talk was fuelled by a Credit Suisse First Boston research...

Cemex reverts losses betting on rates

07 September 2005, Published under Cement News

Rodrigo Treviño, Finance manager at Cemex S.A., had losses of US$467m  two years ago, because of betting on an interest rate rise in the United Sates. Currently, the company is reverting that loss with the same strategy. The official actually increased the profits of the company in US$370m during the last three quarters, by using interest rate swap contracts that helped to reduce Cemex’s financing costs.This recovery made the securities of the world’s third cement producer to raise 36 per...

Orascom’s record sales

06 September 2005, Published under Cement News

OCI reports 43% growth in consolidated revenue and a 57% rise in net income for the six months ended 30 June 2005. Orascom Construction Industries  announced consolidated revenue of LE 5,365m with EBITDA of LE 1313.1m and net income of LE 789.7m for the six months ended 30 June 2005. The consolidated results included LE 30.9 million in foreign exchange losses and LE 74.2 million in negative goodwill amortization relating to the acquisition of 50% of BESIX last year. During the same per...

Cemex move to improve balance sheet

05 September 2005, Published under Cement News

In a further move to reduce the debt on its balance sheet in the wake of the cash acquisition of RMC Group, Cemex has sold assets valued at US$91.6m to its existing joint venture with the family controlled Ready Mix USA. The deal covers 27 batching plants and four concrete block factories, all in the greater Atlanta, Georgia area and trading under the Allied Ready Mix name. These operations will be managed by the Birmingham, Alabama, based Ready Mix USA, as is the case with all the concrete ...

Morgan Stanley chosen as prime bidder for Ssangyong Corp

05 September 2005, Published under Cement News

Global investment bank Morgan Stanley has been selected as the preliminary preferred bidder for Ssangyong Corp, a troubled South Korean trading company, Ssangyong’s creditors said Friday.   "Morgan Stanley beat four other prospective buyers in terms of price, job retention and debt disposal," a creditor bank official said on condition of anonymity.    The creditors will make a final decision on Monday on whether to select Morgan Stanley as the prime bidder, he said.    They plan to sign a...

China Resources to buy Guangxi Yufeng stake, China

02 September 2005, Published under Cement News

China Resources Cement Holdings Ltd said it has agreed to acquire the remaining 9.1% stake in Guangxi Pingnan China Resources Yufeng Cement Co Ltd that it does not already own for CNY64.62m.  China Resources company secretary Peter Lee said the group will wholly own Guangxi Pingnan upon completion of the transaction. "The acquisition will further strengthen and consolidate the group’s business position in the cement business in the (China’s) Pearl River Delta," Lee said. 

Lafarge India shuffles top deck after entry of new CEO

02 September 2005, Published under Cement News

Lafarge India has embarked on a top-level management reshuffle, close on the heels of Uday Khanna taking over as its new CEO. Shivesh Sinha, the company’s CFO till recently, has been promoted to take over as advisor, Lafarge Asia. Antoinne Zenone, an old Lafarge hand, has come in as senior VP (accounts and control).    Gautam Ray, who was posted at the Lafarge group headquarters, has moved back from Paris to rejoin Lafarge India as senior vice president (legal and finance). On July 1, Mr Kh...

Dontsement appoints Galant board chairman

02 September 2005, Published under Cement News

Council of shareholders in the Dontsement cement producer (Amvrosiivka, Donetsk region), who are performing the functions of the company’s supervisory board, have appointed Wojciech Galant as board chairman.    A company representative made the statement to Ukrainian News. "Galant is appointed as board chairman," the representative said.  Ukrainian News earlier reported, on August 10 that shareholders dismissed board chairman Ihor Yelchaninov and appointed Galant as acting board chairman.  ...

Shareholder meeting of Semen Padang cancelled

02 September 2005, Published under Cement News

The plan to conduct shareholders meeting of Semen Padang and Semen Tonasa had been cancelled from the initial schedule of yesterday. The shareholders meeting had not been rescheduled yet.     The shareholders meeting had been cancelled as legal and documentation conditions of the meeting were incomplete.     "The shareholders-meeting of Semen Tonasa and Semen Padang was scheduled today. But we have to cancel the program as the legal condition is incomplete. We have not determined the new sc...