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Volkan Bozay appointed chief of Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association
Written by Global Cement staff
14 October 2020
Turkey: The Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB) has appointed Volkan Bozay as its chief executive officer (CEO). Outgoing CEO Ismail Bulut will continue his activities as an advisor to the chairman of the board of directors.
Bozay has held a mixture of public and private sector jobs during his career including a role at the R&D Unit of Undersecretariat of Treasury and Foreign Trade, head of the Finance Department of the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKI) and as a board member of the Emlak Konut Real Estate Investment Company. He also worked as the Assistant General Manager at the General Directorate of Promotions of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and has worked as a Corporate Relations Manager at British American Tobacco, Turkey.
Bozay holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) on finance and strategy from the Peter F Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, US and has a BA degree in Business Administration from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. He has also served as a board member for the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly and the National Association of Tobacco Products Manufacturers at Aegean Exporters' Association (EIB).
Tino La Spina appointed as a Chief Finance & Strategy Officer at Boral
Written by Global Cement staff
14 October 2020
Australia: Boral has appointed Tino La Spina as its Chief Finance & Strategy Officer. He succeeds Rosaline Ng, who will work with La Spina during a transition period and then leave Boral in early 2021.
La Spina is a qualified chartered accountant whose early career was in taxation and audit functions and who has spent the past 25 years in finance, strategy and leadership roles primarily in the airline industry. In 2019 Tino was appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Qantas International, before leaving Qantas in August 2020 due to coronavirus-related industry disruption. He held a variety of strategy and financial roles before being appointed Group Chief Financial Officer in 2014. Prior to joining Qantas in 2006, he spent five years as Finance Director and Deputy CEO of the National Express Group and five years with Ansett.
He has a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) from Swinburne University in Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma Investment & Finance from the Australian Securities Institute and is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Cemex secures loan extension 14 October 2020
Mexico: Cemex says that it has agreed upon an amendment to its facilities agreement to extend US$1.1bn of term loan maturities to 2025 from 2022, and US$1.1bn of commitments under the revolving credit facility to 2023 from 2022. It says that the sustainability criteria incorporated into the interest rates of the facilities agreement, now worth US$3.2bn, make it ‘one of the largest sustainability-linked loans in the world.’ The company adds that it will prepay US$530m to institutions participating in the extension, corresponding to the July 2021 amortisation under the facilities agreement, and extending its debt maturity profile through to July 2023.
The group has also decided to redenominate its debt away from the US dollar. US$313m of exposure under the term loans that are part of the facilities agreement will convert to Mexican Pesos and US$82m will convert to Euros.
Brazilian cement sales rise by 21% to 5.8Mt in September 2020 14 October 2020
Brazil: Cement sales rose by 21% year-on-year to 5.8Mt in September 2020 from 4.8Mt in September 2019. Data from the National Cement Industry Union (SNIC) shows that sales increased by 9.4% year-on-year to 44.6Mt in the first nine months of 2020 from 40.8Mt in the same period in 2019. Particular gains for the year to date were noted in the North-East and Central-West regions. SNIC has attributed the sales growth to government support for civil construction.
“The results are surprising so far, but that doesn't give us security in the long run,” said Paulo Camillo Penna, president of SNIC. “Sales are being sustained, in the great majority, by real estate construction, the maintenance of the pace of works and small residential reforms and also in the commercial activity that already presents a decline in consumption due to its operation,” However he also noted that activity had been, “subjected to a huge and unexpected pressure of demand, especially since June 2020.” As such SNIC has called for resumption of infrastructure work to stabilise demand.
PPC reports 2020 full financial year results 14 October 2020
South Africa: PPC recorded sales of US$618m in the 2020 financial year, which ended 31 March 2020, down by 2.4% year-on-year from US$634m in the 2019 financial year. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation fell by 17% to US$97.0m from US$118m.
Chief executive officer (CEO) Roland van Wijnen said, “The 2020 financial year was characterised by difficult trading conditions, especially in South Africa. The global Covid-19 pandemic, which emerged during the last month of the financial year, further exacerbated an already difficult trading cycle. While we have seen a decline in our financial performance, we also see that the actions we have taken to reposition PPC to deliver sustainable value for all our stakeholders are beginning to yield results.”
He added, “After the resumption of trading in the 2021 financial year, the performance across all of our core businesses has been encouraging. The group’s capital restructuring remains a key priority. Over the next nine months, we will take the strategic and operational actions needed to improve the group’s financial position and performance. It is encouraging to see how PPC employees have come together to drive performance to sustain our purpose to empower people to experience a better quality of life.”