Displaying items by tag: Cade

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos grew its revenue and earnings in 2024 but its net income dropped significantly due to interest rate volatility. It noted ‘positive performance’ in its Europe and Asia region and a stable market in Brazil. It attributed its mounting earnings to its balanced portfolio, revenue in Europe and Asia, operational efficiency, reduced costs and new business.

The group’s net revenue grew by 3% year-on-year to US$4.69bn in 2024 from US$4.53bn in 2023. However, revenue fell slightly in local currencies due to negative exchange effects, particularly in North America. Cement sales volumes rose by 1% to 35.4Mt from 34.9Mt. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 16% to US$1.14bn from US$0.99bn. Earnings rose in all regions except for Latin America due to a ‘challenging’ market in Uruguay and lower prices in Bolivia. Despite this, its adjusted net income dropped by 17% to US$383m from US$461m.

“We ended the year with record-high operating results, supported by our geographic, product and business diversification, in line with our strategic mandate,” said Osvaldo Ayres, the group’s global CEO. The company invested over US$550m in 2024 towards decarbonisation, competitiveness and new businesses. A further US$880m investment plan in Brazil to 2028 was announced in early 2024. Ongoing projects include upgrades supporting higher thermal substitution rates at the Xambioá plant in Tocantins state and the Salto de Pirapora plant in São Paulo. A new 1Mt/yr cement grinding unit is being built at the Salto de Pirapora site. Construction of this project is scheduled for completion in the second-half of 2025. A new 1Mt/yr cement grinding unit was also announced at the Edealina plant in Goiás. This project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.

Votorantim also revealed that it paid around US$190m to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) at the end of 2024 in connection with an agreement to end all administrative and judicial litigation. It said “We definitively resolved all pending disputes with CADE. We did not acknowledge, at any time, having committed any unlawful act or engaged in any anticompetitive behaviour.”

InterCement confirmed this week that it is accepting bids for its sale. The local financial press had been covering InterCement’s progress towards this since the autumn when it was reported that it appointed BTG Pactual to manage the sale.

The Valor Econômico newspaper then revealed this week that Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN), Votorantim and China-based Huaxin Cement had all submitted bids. InterCement admitted that it had received offers but didn’t say from who, and pointed out that no deal had been signed yet. Valor said that Votorantim was part of a consortium including Polimix (parent company of Mizu Cimentos) and Buzzi. However, Votorantim issued a statement affirming its involvement but pointing out that it was acting alone and not part of a consortium. Finally, Valor reported that InterCement is looking to raise at least US$1.2bn from the sale of its business in Brazil. In Argentina, Loma Negra confirmed what its parent company, InterCement, was doing. La Nación newspaper also reckoned that the parent company might be looking for over US$700m for the subsidiary.

Rumours that InterCement was looking to sell assets have swirled around since the early 2010s when InterCement picked up the Brazil-based assets of Cimpor and Votorantim bought the international ones. The local market then collapsed giving InterCement a hard time, although when it started to rally in the late 2010s the talk turned to a potential initial public offering. More recently the focus has been on InterCement’s high level of debt and pending maturation dates. It publicly said it was working towards a new capital structure in May 2023 and various debt negotiations followed. By the end of the third quarter of 2023 it reported debts in debentures and senior notes of just under US$1.6bn. It signed a deal to sell its subsidiary in Egypt in January 2023 to an unspecified buyer and then divested its operations in Mozambique and South Africa to Huaxin Cement for just over US$230m in December 2023.

It is noteworthy that InterCement has gone public about its divestment intentions now, given previous coverage in the local press and the poor state of its finances in 2023. In November 2023, for example, Valor reported that CSN had hired Morgan Stanley to represent it in a dispute over the sale. At this time Huaxin Cement plus Titan, Buzzi, Polimix and Vicat were all said to be interested. CSN was also said to be waiting until the results of the presidential election in Argentina first before committing to any deal. Yet InterCement said nothing about what was going on at this time.

The other issue is whether InterCement wants to sell its assets in one big piece or in sections. This would be of particular interest to Votorantim, and CSN to a lesser extent, since they control 30% and 20% of the cement market respectively, according to Valor. Data based on cement production capacity data from the Global Cement Directory makes the gap between the two companies wider since Votorantim holds 46% compared to CSN’s 9%. The point here is that the local competition regulator, the Administrative Court of the Brazilian Administrative Council of Economic Defence (CADE), would be more likely to intervene if it determined that one company might be about to distort the market. Clearly this could happen if Votorantim struck a deal to buy InterCement but there might also be issues regionally with CSN or indeed some of the other local cement producers. Alternatively, Votorantim might be interested in buying Loma Negra instead. All InterCement has said on the matter is that it is “evaluating strategic alternatives, such as private placement, merger, or partnership with a strategic player, or even a potential divestment.”

Any potential sales of InterCement would be the biggest adjustment to the Brazilian cement sector since CSN bought Holcim Brazil for just over US$1bn in mid-2022. There appear to be plenty of potential vendors for both the businesses in Brazil and Argentina but whether InterCement sells its assets in one big lump or in separate pieces may be an issue almost as important as the price, given the competition concerns. Finally, could this be the first major China-based acquisition in the cement sector in South America? Huaxin Cement demonstrated willingness to buy plants from InterCement in Africa in 2023 and it has been linked in the current auction. Unlike previous talk of InterCement selling up, this time it seems serious given the divestments in Africa and the scale of the debt. An outcome seems likely in the coming months.

Brazil: InterCement has hired BTG Pactual to help explore ‘capitalisation alternatives’ as part of a proposed restructuring, possibly involving the sale of the group’s Brazilian business. Valor International News has reported that Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) Cimentos has signalled its interest in acquiring the business, while Votorantim Cimentos may group together with other cement companies to make a bid. This would entail a division of the assets in order to conform to Brazilian competition laws.

InterCement successfully secured a postponement for payment of its outstanding bank debt in September 2023. It owes net debt of US$1.5bn up to 2027, including a senior note of US$548m due in May 2024. InterCement operates 12.2Mt/yr worth of cement capacity, and produced 8.7Mt of cement in 2022.

Brazil: The Administrative Court of the Brazilian Administrative Council of Economic Defence (CADE) has approved Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional subsidiary CSN Cimentos’ acquisition of LafargeHolcim Brasil, ‘without restrictions.’ The acquisition more than doubles CSN Cimentos’ capacity to 16.3Mt/yr, giving it the largest market share, ahead of InterCement Brasil.

Brazil: The General Superintendence of the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE) has approved CSN’s takeover deal with Holcim for the latter’s Brazilian business. The América Economía newspaper has reported that the US$1.03m deal covers five cement plants, among other assets.

Holcim has said that its Latin America region remains strategically important within its global operations.

Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) Cimentos was confirmed this week as the agreed buyer for Holcim’s Brazilian cement business for US$1.03bn. The deal includes five integrated cement plants, four grinding plants and 19 ready-mix concrete facilities. CSN is now poised to become Brazil’s third-largest cement producer by production capacity after Votorantim and InterCement. Or second place if you believe CSN’s cheeky claims about a competitor’s idle capacity!

Figure 1: Map of cement plants included in CSN Cimentos’ deal to buy LafargeHolcim Brazil assets. Source: CSN Investor Relations website.

CSN originally started out in steel production and this remains the major part of its operations to the present day. In 2020 it reported revenue of US$5.74bn. Around 55% of this came from its steel business, 42% from mining, 5% in logistics and only 3% came from its cement segment. CSN’s path in the cement sector started in 2009 when it started grinding blast furnace slag and clinker at its Presidente Vargas Plant at Volta Redonda in Rio de Janeiro state. It then started clinker production in 2011 at its integrated Arcos plant in Minas Gerais. Not a lot happened for the next decade, publicly at least, as the country faced an economic downturn and national cement sales sunk to a low in 2017. From around 2019, CSN Cimentos then started talking about a number of new proposed plant projects elsewhere in Brazil, dependent on market growth and an anticipated initial public offering (IPO). These included plants at Ceará, Sergipe, Pará and Paraná and expansion to the existing units in the south-east. Then CSN Cimentos agreed to buy Cimento Elizabeth for US$220m in July 2021.

It is worth noting that the Holcim acquisition is subject to approval by the local competition authority. For example, the Cimento Elizabeth plant and Holcim’s Caaporã plant are both in Paraíba state and within about 30km of each other. If approved, this would give CSN Cimentos two of the four integrated plants in the state, with the other two operated by Votorantim and InterCement respectively. CSN also stands to pick up four integrated plants in Minas Gerais from Holcim to add to the one it holds at present. Although this would seem to be of less concern due to the high number of plants in the state.

Holcim has made a point of saying that its divestment in Brazil is part of its strategy to refocus on sustainable building solutions with the proceeds going towards its Solutions & Products business following the Firestone acquisition that completed in early 2021. It has also stated previously that it wants to concentrate on core markets with long term prospects. In this context a major steelmaker like CSN diversifying into cement is a contrast. Both industries are high CO₂ emitters so CSN is hardly moving away from carbon-intensive sectors. Yet the two have operational, economic and sustainability synergies through the use of slag in cement production. This puts CSN Cimentos in company with Votorantim in Brazil and JSW Cement in India, two other steel manufacturers that also produce cement. Whatever else happens at the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26) in November 2021, it seems unlikely that global demand for steel or cement is likely to be significantly reduced. CSN Cimentos is now going to resume its IPO of shares to raise funds for the Holcim acquisition.

Acquisitions are all about timing. The CSN Cimentos-Holcim deal follows the purchase of CRH Brazil by Buzzi Unicem’s Companhia Nacional de Cimento (CNC) joint-venture earlier in 2021. As mentioned above, the cement market in Brazil has been doing well since it started recovering in 2018. The coronavirus pandemic barely slowed this down due to weak lockdown measures compared to other countries. The current run of sales growth may be tapering off based on the latest National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) figures for August 2021. Rolling annual totals on a monthly basis had been growing since mid-2019 but this started to slow in May 2021. Annual sales will be up in 2021 based on the figures so far this year but after that, who knows? A CSN investors’ day document in December 2020 predicted, as one would expect, steady cement consumption growth in Brazil until at least 2025, based on correlated forecast growth in the general economy. Yet fears of inflation, rising prices and political uncertainty ahead of the next general election in late 2022 may undermine this. InterCement, for example, cancelled a proposed IPO in July 2021 due to low valuations amid investor uncertainty. CSN Cimentos may encounter similar issues with its own planned IPO or face over-leveraging itself when it picks up the tab for LafargeHolcim Brazil. Either way, CSN decided to take the risk on its path to becoming Brazil’s third largest cement producer.

Brazil: Cement producers including CSN Cimentos, Cimentos Mizu, Cimento Apodi, InterCement and Votorantim have all bid for Holcim’s assets in Brazil. A consortium of CSN Cimentos, Cimentos Mizu and Cimento Apodi is reportedly intending to buy up to 10 production plants, according to sources quoted by Reuters. InterCement and Votorantim have also made offers but are bidding for smaller parts of the business due to competition law restrictions.

Votorantim has bid for plants in the north-eastern of the country and InterCement for those in the south-eastern states of Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and Minas Gerais. Any eventual proposed acquisition will be subject to scrutiny by the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE). Holcim expects to generate US$1 – 1.5bn from the eventual sale.

Brazil: LafargeHolcim Brasil, part of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim, is reportedly seeking to sell its assets. The Diario do Comercio newspaper has reported the rumour without detailing its sources. LafargeHolcim has not commented on the matter. However, local government officials in Borosso, Minas Gerais said they were waiting for an official confirmation from the cement producer before they could comment. The newspaper also speculated that the group may have already notified the Brazil government of its intent to sell. Under Brazilian law, any sale would require the approval of the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE). The producer operates three cement plants and two grinding plants in the country.

Brazil: Companhia Nacional de Cimento (CNC), part of Italy-based Buzzi Unicem’s 50% subsidiary BCPAR, has acquired CRH Brasil following approval by the Brazilian antitrust authority (CADE). The deal was originally agreed for US$218m although changes in the financial positions of the acquired companies changed this. Buzzi Unicem supplied CNC with US$242m to support the deal.

CRH Brasil’s assets included three integrated cement plants and two grinding plants in the south-east of the country. The company sold approximately 2.8Mt of cement in 2020.

Buzzi Unicem beefed up its presence in Brazil this week with the announcement that it is buying CRH’s local cement plants through its Companhia Nacional de Cimento (CNC) joint-venture with Grupo Ricardo Brennand. The deal covers CRH Brazil’s three integrated plants at Cantagalo in Rio de Janeiro, and, Arcos and Matozinhos in Minas Gerais. It also throws in two grinding plants including the Santa Luzia Plant in Minas Gerais for a total of US$218m, although the final figure may change depending on conditions such as the net financial situation at the closing date.

The purchase brings up two trends. Firstly, it’s a continuation of CRH’s refocus on safe havens in Europe and North America. The Ireland-based building materials producer originally picked up these plants in the wake of the formation of LafargeHolcim in 2015 as part of a package deal for Euro6.5bn in its ‘bolt-on’ acquisition expansion phase. Most of the assets in that deal were in Europe and North America, although it did see CRH also build a presence in the Philippines.

Since late 2019 reports have emerged in the press about plans to sell up in Brazil and the Philippines. Whether CRH has made any profit on its sale in Brazil is hard to tell given the scale of its purchases from Lafarge and Holcim in 2015. The focus was likely on those key markets closer to home. Yet cement sales in Brazil peaked in 2014 before the national economy were hit by falling commodity and oil prices that contributed to a recession as well as the Petrobras political crisis. Sales bottomed out in 2018 and have been building steam since. Now is certainly the time to consider departure with a good price given the National Cement Industry Union’s (SNIC) glowing data for September 2020.

For Buzzi Unicem, the proposed acquisition represents the next step on its multinational ambitions, pushing Brazil into its fifth biggest territory in terms of cement production capacity after Italy, the US, Mexico and Germany. Its timing was good in September 2018, when it agreed to buy a 50% stake in the Brazilian company BCPAR from Grupo Ricardo Brennand for Euro150m, because local sales were finally starting to pick up. Once again Buzzi Unicem has also picked up cement production assets for a capacity price just below US$100/t. This time it faces a similar balance of uncertainty with the Brazilian cement industry reporting continuing growth but facing an uncertain future from the economic effects, locally and worldwide, from the coronavirus pandemic.

One point to note here is that as part of its deal with Grupo Ricardo Brennand in 2018, Buzzi Unicem had the right to buy the remaining 50% of BCPAR from Grupo Ricardo Brennand until 1 January 2025. Presumably, though, the option to buy Grupo Ricardo Brennand out of BCPA remains valid. This makes it interesting that Buzzi Unicem chose further expansion over consolidation of its existing business. Four years remain for it to buy the rest of BCPAR if it wants to.

Given the concentration of the Brazilian business in the south-east of the country it seems unlikely that the acquisition would be turned down since the enlarged BCPAR will hold a production base behind larger producers like Votorantim or InterCement. However, Cimento Nacional’s Sete Lagoas plant and CRH Brazil’s Matozinhos plant are both close in Belo Horizonte and this may cause concerns. Now it’s over to the Brazilian regulators to approve or decline the deal and the various parties to finalise.