Displaying items by tag: Breedon Group

UK: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has accepted Breedon Group’s proposed divestments as part of its acquisition of certain assets from Cemex subsidiary Cemex Investments. The agreement will see the divestment of 14 sites - including a cement terminal, two quarries and 10 ready-mix plants - to Tillicoultry Quarries.

The building materials producer said that it “notes the announcement today by the CMA that it has accepted Breedon's undertakings in lieu of a reference to a Phase 2 investigation in respect of its acquisition of certain assets from Cemex Investments Limited.”

UK: Breedon Group has appointed James Brotherton as its chief financial officer (CFO) designate with effect from 1 January 2021. He was previously the CFO of Tyman between 2010 and 2019, prior to which he was Director of Corporate Development for five years. Prior to Tyman, Brotherton worked in investment banking roles at Citi and HSBC, after qualifying as a chartered accountant at Ernst and Young. He is currently a director of the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) and represents the QCA on the Takeover Panel.

As announced previously, Rob Wood, Breedon Groups' current Group Finance Director, will succeed Pat Ward as chief executive officer (CEO) upon Ward’s retirement during 2021. It is anticipated that Brotherton will be appointed to the board as CFO at that point to ensure an orderly transition.

UK: Breedon Group says that it has agreed to sell 14 sites to Tillicoultry Quarries for Euro13.5m. The sale includes a cement terminal and two quarries in Scotland, and 10 ready-mix plants and an asphalt plant in England. Breedon says it is making the divestment in order to meet the concerns of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) with regard to its takeover of part of Cemex UK’s ready-mix and aggregates operations. Once completed the group expects to be able to finalise its integration of the remaining assets acquired from Cemex into its existing business.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Pat Ward said, "We are very pleased with the outcome of this process and believe it is in the interests all stakeholders. It allows Breedon to realise fair value for the assets disposed of, which, together with the people employed in them, will be in good hands under new ownership by Tillicoultry Quarries."

UK: Breedon Group plans to appoint Rob Wood as its Group Chief Executive in 2021. He is currently the Group Finance Director. Recruitment for a new Group Finance Director is underway. This will follow the retirement of current head Pat Ward who has held the post since early 2016.

UK: Breedon Group says that it has “continued to deliver an encouraging trading performance since demand began to return in early May 2020 after the Covid-19 lockdown,” recording eight-month sales of Euro580m over the period that ended on 31 August 2020, down by 15% from Euro681 over the corresponding period of 2019. The group says that the figure includes the contributions of its newly acquired Cemex ready-mix and aggregates assets for August 2020.

As a result of this performance, the board reinstated its 2020 guidance, with underlying earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) for the second half of 2020 anticipated to be in line with that in the second half of 2019. It added, “We continue to be reassured by the UK government's restated commitment to investment in the UK's infrastructure and to encouraging demand from the UK housing market, complemented by similar trends in the Republic of Ireland.”

UK: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it will consider the undertakings offered by Breedon Group to which its deal with Cemex UK for acquisition of several of the latter’s ready-mix and aggregates operations would be subject. The regulator explained its ruling by saying, “There are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings might be accepted by the CMA under the Enterprise Act 2002.” This may lead to the completion of the acquisitions, which were agreed on 21 January 2020.

UK: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said that Breedon Group’s acquisition of a minority of Cemex UK’s ready-mix and aggregates operations “may lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the supply of ready-mixed concrete, non-specialist aggregates or asphalt in 15 local markets across the UK” in a letter to the group. The Herald newspaper has reported that the potentially affected markets are in localities where Breedon Group is already dominant, such as eastern Scotland and the East Midlands.

CMA senior director Colin Rafferty said, “As consumers source the majority of these materials locally, it’s vital to ensure that enough competition will remain at the local level so there’s enough choice and prices remain fair.” If it fails to respond to the CMA’s concerns by 2 September 2020, Breedon Group will face an in-depth Phase 2 investigation into the deal.

UK: Breedon Group says it has completed the acquisition of selected assets from Cemex. Following instructions from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) the assets will be operated as Pinnacle Construction Materials, a newly-created separate business led by its own management team and operating from its own offices. Pinnacle will offer a range of heavy building materials, including aggregates, asphalt, ready-mixed concrete, concrete products and cement, together with contracting services, from approximately 100 locations in England, Wales and Scotland.

The CMA is still investigating the acquisition and plans to announce its initial conclusions in late August 2020. Breedon Group expects to integrate Pinnacle into its UK business at a later date once this process is fully completed. Cemex agreed to sell Breedon Group some of its UK assets in January 2020. This included 49 ready-mix plants, 28 aggregate quarries and a cement terminal for Euro211m.

UK/Ireland: Breedon Group’s sales fell by a quarter in the first half of 2020 due to coronavirus-related lockdown measures. Its revenue fell by 25% to Euro371m in the first half of 2020 from Euro495m in the same period in 2019. Its underlying earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) dropped to Euro0.7m from Euro54.8m. Cement sales volumes deceased by 20% to 0.8Mt, aggregates by 20% to 8Mt and ready-mixed concrete (RMX) by 33% to 1Mm³. Its net debt fell by 26% to Euro281m.

“Following the encouraging performance of our businesses in the first 12 weeks of the year, the move into lockdown and immediate fall in demand in the latter part of March led us into a swift and managed shutdown of the majority of our operations, leaving open only those which were servicing critical needs,” said group chief executive officer (CEO) Pat Ward. He added, “The recovery in our markets now appears to be well underway, and we have seen continued improvement into July. The great majority of our sites are now open, including both our cement plants. While near-term uncertainty remains, there is significant pent-up demand to be satisfied in both housing and infrastructure.”

UK: An independent report by Mott Macdonald has found that Breedon Group’s Hope Cement plant in Derbyshire contributes Euro67m/yr to the local economy, up by 15% from Euro58m/yr at the time of the previous report in July 2017. The 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant employs 270 people, 202 of them directly, corresponding to 1.8% of total employment in the national park in which it is situated. Its economic contribution to the park’s total economic output of Euro956m is 7%.

Breedon Group said that the 90-year-old plant “Has a long tradition of actively engaging with the local community through its many social and communal activities. These include access for local residents to the Hope Works estate and the Earles Sports and Social Club as well as on-site open days and tours and a range of local business and community partnerships.” Manager Ed Hope said, “It is gratifying to see the healthy increase in our contribution to the local economy over the past few years. We’re very proud of the part we play in the lives and employment of people in the Peak District National Park.”