Displaying items by tag: Cemex Latam Holdings

Colombia: Cemex subsidiary Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH) recorded net sales of US$571m in the first nine months of 2020 were down by 24% year-on-year from US$752m in the corresponding period of 2019. Operating earnings fell by 14% to US$69.0m from US$87.0m, while consolidated cement volumes fell by 20% to 3.92Mt from 4.89Mt.

Jesus Gonzalez, chief executive officer (CEO) of CLH said, “Our operations could run relatively normally during the third quarter in Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, while restrictions impacted in Panama and to a lesser degree in Costa Rica.” He added that the company improved its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 19% on a like-for-like basis to US$51m in the third quarter of 2020.

Colombia: Cemex España has requested authorisation by the Colombian Financial Superintendency (SFC) to make offers to buy the shares of all Cemex Latam Holdings shareholders with a view to taking over a 100% stake in the company. El Ceo News has reported that after receiving authorisation Cemex España must place a bid within five working days.

Colombia: Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH)’s net sales in the first quarter of 2020 were US$214m, down by 11% year-on-year compared to sales of US$240m in the same period of 2019. Operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) throughout the quarter declined by 12% year-on-year to US$46.0m from US$52.3m. Cement volumes over the period were 11% below their first-quarter 2019 level, however prices were 3% higher. Total debt decreased by 8% year-over-year, reaching US$766m as of March 2020.

Cemex Latam Holdings CEO Jesus Gonzalez 
said, “We came into 2020 with favourable demand momentum in Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, and a stabilising trend in Costa Rica. The coronavirus outbreak began to impact on this in March 2020. With respect to capex, US$20.0m has been postponed until 2021. Also, members of CLH’s Board and senior leadership have agreed to voluntarily waive a percentage of their second quarter salaries. Other employees voluntarily deferred a percentage of their salaries for the period. I would like to thank my colleagues for their support in these challenging times.”

US: Cemex says that a class action lawsuit filed with the Southern District Court of New York in 2018 has been dismissed. The legal action was made by a group of investors who allege that they were misled in relation to an alleged corruption case in Colombia. The building materials company said that the decision of the court was final and that the plaintiffs would not be entitled to a new trial,

The legal proceedings followed reports in 2018 that the US Department of Justice had requested information from Cemex about a case of alleged corruption in the construction of the Maceo cement plant in Colombia. In 2016 Cemex fired several senior staff members in relation to the Maceo project and its subsidiary’s chief executive resigned. This followed an internal audit and investigation into payments worth around US$20m made to a non-governmental third party in connection with the acquisition of the land, mining rights and benefits of the tax free zone for the project.

Mexico: Cemex has made a series of changes its senior level organisation with changes to the heads of its operations in the US and its South, Central America and the Caribbean region. These personnel changes will come into effect from 1 September 2019.

Jaime Muguiro Dominguez, the current president of Cemex South, Central America and the Caribbean, and managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex Latam Holdings (CLH), has been appointed president of Cemex USA. He succeeds Ignacio Madridejos who had held the role since late 2015. Madridejos will leave Cemex to become the CEO of Ferrovial, a Spanish infrastructure development company.

Jesus V Gonzalez Herrera, current Cemex Executive Vice President of Sustainability and Operations Development, has been appointed president of Cemex South, Central America and the Caribbean. In addition, on 6 August 2019, Gonzalez was appointed CEO of CLH by the board of directors of CLH.

Juan Romero Torres, currently the Executive Vice President of Global Commercial Development, has been appointed Executive Vice President of Sustainability, Commercial and Operations Development. This new role combines Romero’s current responsibilities with those of the Executive Vice Presidency of Sustainability and Operations Development, which include the Health & Safety, Operations and Technology, Energy, Procurement, Sustainability and Research & Development areas.

Good news for Cemex Colombia this week with an agreement reached to open its Maceo cement plant in Antioquia. Local media was reporting that the cement producer has struck a government-brokered deal with CI Calizas y Minerales to lease the land it built its plant on. Finally, the new(ish) US$350m integrated plant can start operation.

For those unfamiliar with the debacle, Cemex has been fighting the fallout publicly since 2016, following a dodgy land deal at the site. The 1Mt/yr integrated Maceo plant was originally announced in 2014 with full operation scheduled for late 2016. Then, in October 2016 Cemex fired several senior staff members in relation to the project and its subsidiary’s chief executive resigned. This followed an internal audit and investigation into payments worth around US$20m made to a non-government third party in connection with the acquisition of the land, mining rights and benefits of the tax free zone for the project. Other irregularities are also alleged to be linked to the project. As well as the Colombian authorities being involved, the US Department of Justice is also running its own investigation into the affair with wider implications for Cemex’s operations in other Latin American countries. Some of the sacked staff members and others have since been investigated on corruption charges.

Graph 1: Cement production in Colombia, 2010 – 2018. Source: DANE.

Looking at the wider Colombian market though, it does make one wonder whether the long-delayed plant is really necessary. As Graph 1 shows, cement production rose steadily year-on-year to 2015 before it hit a downturn. It reached a high of 13Mt in 2015 before declining. Production in 2018 grew slightly compared to 2017 but not at the same rate seen previously. In Antioquia specifically despatches increased by 1.3% in 2018, above the national average of 0.2%. Despatches now appear to have continued into January and February 2019.

Cemex Colombia started to benefit from an improved fourth quarter in 2018 as the general economy picked up. Despite this its overall net sales and operating earnings fell in 2018. However, it did flag its earnings margin as a concern with higher freight and energy costs in the fourth quarter of 2018, although it partially offset this with higher prices. Cementos Argos, the other big producer in Colombia, reported a similar picture to Cemex, although in a better position. Its cement volumes fell slightly for the year in 2018 but picked up fast in the fourth quarter. Annual revenue was down slightly, as were adjusted earnings. In its opinion the construction industry improved in the second half of 2018 due to an improved housing market and infrastructure projects.

Given the downturn in production since 2015 the thought does occur whether the opening of the Maceo plant being delayed accidentally helped Cemex or not. It has probably been losing money by not running the plant but if, for example, the company had some sort of insurance to protect it against unexpected delays it might still benefit. However, if evidence of serious wider misconduct in both Colombia and other Latin American countries are found by the US authorities, then things could get expensive. This would be unfortunate, particularly in Colombia, given that the market looks set to recover.