Displaying items by tag: France
France: Patrick Debavelaere has been appointed as the director of LafargeHoclim’s Val d'Azergues cement plant near Lyon. He suceeds Thomas de Charrette who has been in post for six years, according to Le Pays Roannais newspaper. Debavelaere, aged 43 years, had been working as an industrial director for Lafarge France’s aggregate business. Prior to this he was the production manager at the Martres cement plant.
Canadian pension firms buy minority stakes in Fives
02 January 2018Canada/France: Pension investment management companies La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) have each purchased a minority stake in France’s Fives. CDPQ and PSP Investments will each acquire a ‘significant’ minority stake in Fives, which will remain controlled by its management, to support its next development phase. Ardian, an investment house, will continue to be part of the new shareholding structure, as a minority co-investor. The completion of the transaction remains subject to approval by relevant regulatory authorities. No value for the deal has been disclosed.
“We are very enthusiastic to enter a new phase of our development with CDPQ and PSP Investments. Their long-term approach to investment, their deep valuable industrial insights and their strategic vision aligned with that of the management team make them ideal partners for the group, allowing Fives to take advantage, at a global scale, of the full potential of our diversified operations,” said Frédéric Sanchez, chief executive officer (CEO) of Fives Group.
Founded in 1812, engineering company Fives designs and supplies machines, process equipment and production lines for industries including cement, minerals, aluminium, steel, glass, automotive, aerospace, logistics, energy and sugar. The group is located in over 30 countries and it has nearly 8400 employees.
France: Lawyers on behalf of the human rights group Sherpa have accused Lafarge of paying nearly Euro13m to armed groups including Islamic State between 2011 and 2015 in order to keep a cement plant operating during the Syrian civil war. They made the statement at a new conference about a preliminary inquiry into the affair, according to Reuters. The lawyers said that a large portion of the money went directly or indirectly to Islamic State and that the payments continued after Lafarge's Jalabiya cement plant was closed in September 2014. They used a figure taken from an internal report by Baker and McKenzie that was commissioned for LafargeHolcim.
Eric Olsen placed under formal investigation in Lafarge Syria probe
08 December 2017France: Eric Olsen, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of LafargeHolcim, has been placed under formal investigation as part of an inquiry into the company’s conduct in Syria, according to a source quoted by Reuters. He has also been placed under judicial supervision. Olsen had previously been questioned along with Bruno Lafont, the former CEO of Lafarge, and Christian Herraul, the former deputy managing director for operations.
Olsen was the head of human relations during the period the probe is covering. LafargeHolcim’s predecessor company Lafarge Syria allegedly paid terrorist groups in Syria to allow a cement plant to continue operating during the Syrian civil war. Olsen later became the CEO of LafargeHolcim when Lafarge merged with Holcim in 2015. However, he resigned in April 2017 following an internal review of the situation. At this time he said that his decision was motivated by his desire to draw a line under the affair. He added that he was ‘absolutely’ not involved in the case and had been unaware of any wrongdoing.
Former Lafarge boss Bruno Lafont questioned in Lafarge Syria probe
07 December 2017France: Bruno Lafont, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Lafarge, has been questioned in an investigation into the company’s conduct in Syria. Lafont was interviewed, as well as the former human resources chief Eric Olsen and former deputy managing director for operations Christian Herrault, according to sources quoted by Agence France Presse.
The investigation is attempting to determine whether LafargeHolcim’s predecessor company Lafarge Syria paid terrorist groups in Syria and how much managers knew about the situation. Lafont was the CEO of Lafarge during the period the inquiry is examining. Olsen later became CEO of LafargeHolcim but resigned after the completion of an internal review into the affair in April 2017, despite not being found personally culpable or even aware of the situation.
Report claims Lafarge Syria paid US$5.6m to groups in Syria
24 November 2017Syria: A report into the alleged activities of Lafarge Syria, now part of LafargeHolcim, claims that the company paid a total of US$5.6m to a number of local factions in Syria, including to the Islamic State group, between July 2012 and September 2014. The report by the US consultant Baker McKenzie in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers was first reported upon by the French satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîne (The Chained Duck).
According to Le Canard enchaîne, a large portion of the payments were paid to ensure the safety of local staff and the free movement of Lafarge trucks, often blocked by fighters at checkpoints. Groups were also reportedly paid as suppliers, as they controlled access to heavy fuel oil or certain raw materials in part of the region. The document prepared by Baker McKenzie states that the Islamic State group could have collected at least US$500,000. The French Ministry of the Economy took legal action in 2016 on possible offenses committed by the cement group Lafarge by operating a plant in Syria, despite EU bans.
LafargeHolcim has maintained its stance that it ‘deeply regrets and condemns the unacceptable mistakes made in Syria’ and states that it called a central investigation as soon as it became aware of the irregularities. On 14 November 2017, police raided LafargeHolcim's offices in Paris and those of its 9.4% shareholder Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) in Brussels, Belgium. An investigation into the activities continues.
France/Belgium: French police have searched the Paris offices of LafargeHolcim as part of an on-going investigation into the company’s conduct in Syria. At the same time the offices of Belgium’s Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) were also searched, according to the Agence France Presse (AFP). Both companies said they were cooperating with the investigations.
A source quoted by AFP said that the investigators are trying to find out if GBL had been aware of Lafarge Syria’s activities in Syria. GBL is a shareholder of LafargeHolcim that held a 9.4% stake at the end of 2016. The investigation as a whole is attempting to determine whether LafargeHolcim’s predecessor company Lafarge Syria paid terrorist groups in Syria and how much managers knew about the situation.
Vicat grows cement sales so far in 2017
07 November 2017France: Vicat’s cement sales have grown by 4.3%, at constant scope and exchange rates, to Euro932m in the first nine months of 2017. Its cement sales volumes rose by 1.6% year-on-year to 16.9Mt from 16.6Mt. Overall, the construction materials company’s sales increased by 2.9% to Euro1.92bn from Euro1.87bn.
“In the first nine months of the year our sales grew at a healthy pace. This was achieved through further growth in the US, despite tough weather conditions in the South east, and a gradual improvement in the French, Indian and Kazakh markets. After very unfavourable weather conditions in the first half, our business in Turkey posted brisk growth again in the third quarter. Lastly, our sales were almost stable in the West Africa and Middle East region,” said group chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Guy Sidos.
Lafarge Syria alleged to have paid armed groups up to US$100,000/month to keep cement plant running
09 October 2017France: Lafarge Cement Syria allegedly paid up to US$100,000/month to armed groups including US$20,000 to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. Former plant manager Bruno Pescheux told investigators that the money went via local businessman Firas Tlass, who was a former minority shareholder in the cement plant, according to the Agence France Presse. Witnesses in the French judicial inquiry have also described false accounting methods used to disguise oil purchases from IS, travel documents allowing Lafarge trucks to move in the region and a planned meeting between IS and a Lafarge Cement Syria security official. The inquiry continues.
LafargeHolcim vehicles targeted in Paris security incident
06 October 2017France: Petrol containers and burnt matches have been found under trucks at a LafargeHolcim site in Paris. Workers found the items underneath the vehicles on the morning of 5 October 2017, according to Agence France Presse. However, the incident is not thought to be terror related. Security camera footage shows the perpetrators trying to ignite the fuel on the night before. Investigators say that the ‘crude device’ had no chance of detonating. Lafarge France operates a number of concrete and aggregate units in the city.
The incident follows on-going anti-terrorism investigations in the city following the discovery of several gas canisters and a cell phone detonator earlier in October 2017. LafargeHolcim is also under investigation by the French judiciary for its conduct running a cement plant in Syria during the civil war.