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Lafarge's third quarter financial results have coincided with the alarming news that terrorists attacked one of its cement plants in Nigeria. Thankfully nobody was hurt at the Ashaka plant. The suspected Boko Haram insurgents reportedly came looking for French nationals but the plant had been mostly evacuated following an earlier more violent incident at a nearby town. Instead they stole explosives and trucks and fled.

The resonance here with Lafarge's global financial situation is that rebel action elsewhere in the world was noted as having an adverse effect on the cement producer's coffers for the third quarter of 2013. In Iraq cement volumes have reportedly fallen by 15% in the year-to-date and almost halved in the third quarter, hit by an inability to transport cement across the country since June 2014, when Islamic State fighters captured parts of northern Iraq.

Looking at the nine months so far in 2014, Lafarge's sales have fallen by varying amounts with the exception of one territory: Middle East and Africa. Here, bucking the trend, sales rose by 3% to Euro2.8bn. The area had been the group's single largest sales region so far in 2014. Of course countries such as a South Africa are much more stable, but most other countries in the territory have had recent terrorism campaigns where a European-backed cement plant might present itself as a target.

This is not good news for a corporate balance sheet relying on these same countries to keep the profits up. However, as Lafarge states in its outlook, 'emerging markets continue to be the main driver of demand and Lafarge will benefit from its well-balanced geographic spread of high quality assets.' Spreading its bets geographically should pay off.

Also in its outlook, Lafarge announced that it intends to pause its stand-alone divestments pending completion of the planned merger with Holcim. The move suggests that the company is prioritising the impending merger over debt reduction. With Lafarge's and Holcim's recent formal notification to the European Commission of their proposed merger to obtain regulatory approval, the last of its necessary notifications worldwide, the merger is getting closer. So far, the original expectation of closure in the first half of 2015 does not look unreasonable.

When former British prime minister Harold Macmillian was asked what causes governments trouble, his apocryphal reply was, "Events, dear boy, events." The same applies to building materials producers. There may be more 'events' before the merger completes.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange of the appointment of Adepeju Adebajo and Anders Kristiansson to the board of Lafarge Africa. Both staff members were formally appointed on 27 October 2014.

Adebajo is currently the MD of WAPCO operations. Prior to this, she served as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at Mouka Limited. She was already the CEO of UTC Nigeria Plc, where she successfully turned the business around.

She previously headed strategic planning, brand management and product development at the United Bank for Africa and has had management consulting experience at Boston Consulting Group in the UK and financial analysis experience at Citibank in the UK.

Peju holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical Engineering) from the Imperial College of Science & Technology, London; a Master of Engineering (Chemical Engineering) from the University of London; and a Master of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston.

Anders Kristiansson is a Swedish citizen who started his career with Procter & Gamble (P&G) in Scandinavia and thereafter worked for P&G in South Africa. He has been a Global Divisional Controller for Eaton Automotive working in Europe and North America, whereafter he returned to Africa to oversee Celtel's finance departments across its African operations as Director of Financial Operations.

He moved to Nigeria in 2008 as Group CFO for PZ Cussons Nigeria, managing Finance and IT for PZ's five Nigerian companies. Prior to joining Lafarge, he was the CFO for NBC/Coca-Cola HBC's operations in Nigeria.

He holds a Master of Science Degree in Business Administration and Economics from the Gothenburg University, Sweden.

Germany: Hendrik Rahms will be supporting Loesche ThermoProzess GmbH (LTP) in technical sales and in the product development of thermal applications. After working as a process engineer and project manager for several years at Brinkmann Industrielle Feuerungs-Systeme GmbH, Rahms is very familiar with the products of burner and process technology as well as the customer requirements in the industry.

Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram fighters have stolen dynamite and pick-up trucks from the Lafarge Ashaka Plant in Nigeria after robbing a bank. The attack in Ashaka, Gombe State on 4 November 2014 came after the Islamists robbed a bank, blew up a police station and set fire to a political party office 20km away in Nafada. Unlike previous attacks in recent months in the far northeast of the country, the militants did not attempt to hold the town.

"The factory was the target of the intruders. There were no injuries. There was no damage in the factory.... The situation is still calm and everything is back to normal," said Bruno Lafont, CEO of Lafarge. French diplomats in Nigeria said that none of its nationals were taken in the raid. Bruno Lafont said that operations had not been affected.

According to witnesses the gunmen stormed the site in the afternoon, looted explosives and demanded to be taken to where expatriate managers, French nationals, were staying. However the plant was mostly empty following the raid in Nafada, which left at least 10 dead.

The Lafarge Ashaka cement plant, set up in 1974, is the largest cement works in northern Nigeria and employs about 500 people, including an unspecified number of expatriates.

France: Lafarge has reported that its net profit fell by 28% year-on-year to Euro218m in the third quarter of 2014 from Euro304m in the same period in 2013. The France-based building materials company blamed the drop on the war in Iraq and a sluggish construction market in France.

Overall sales revenue fell slightly to Euro3.64bn. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation fell by 4% to Euro887m from Euro920m. Cement sales volumes fell slightly to 31Mt.

"In a quarter marked by more moderate growth, we continued to progress on implementing our actions to reduce debt, cut costs and promote innovation... We shall meet our 2014 Euro600m cost-cutting and innovation target and confirm our 2015 Euro550m objective," said Lafarge's CEO, Bruno Lafont.

The company noted that volume trends eased in the third quarter with a more challenging comparable in Europe, mostly in France, where the construction sector remains subdued and in Iraq, the ability to transport cement across the country was limited. Meanwhile, in most emerging markets and in the United States, growth continued and the company benefited from the start-up of its new plants in India and Russia.

Looking ahead, Lafarge confirmed its estimate of market growth of between 2% to 5% in 2014 versus 2013. The company added that it has decided to pause its stand-alone divestments pending completion of the planned merger with Holcim.

Italy: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi officially switched on the new kiln at the Italcementi cement plant in Rezzato on 5 November 2013. The 1Mt/yr plant has undergone an extensive production and environmental upgrade that cost Euro150m.

"The new Rezzato plant is the best expression of the Group's strategy: industrial development combined with a firm commitment to innovation and environmental performance," said Italcementi CEO Carlo Pesenti.

He added that the Rezzato upgrade was part of the Pact for the Environment signed by Italcementi and the Ministry in July 2009, which set out an investment programme for the renewal of our industrial network and attainment of ambitious environmental targets. Other targets include Italgen, the Italcementi Group company that produces energy entirely from renewable sources. The Italcementi investment plan has also seen a technical upgrade at the Matera cement plant.

Products manufactured in Rezzato include white cement and the basic material for a new biodynamic cement to be used to construct the external structure of Palazzo Italia at Expo 2015. The Rezzato production facility currently employs 118 people and provides work for an additional 160 people in ancillary industries.

Ethiopia: South African cement producer PPC has acquired Industrial Development Corporation's 20% stake in Ethiopian-based Habesha Cement for a purchase consideration of US$13m. PPC's initial 27% stake in Habesha, acquired in July 2012, now rises to 51%, while the balance of the shareholding in Habesha is held by around 16,000 local shareholders.

"We are very excited about our increased investment in Ethiopia; a country with a population of 91 million people that is set to reach 100 million by 2018 and having a growth rate that is expected to remain above 8% in the medium term," said Bheki Sibiya, Executive Chairman of PPC.

Habesha has begun the construction of a 1.4Mt/yr cement plant 35 km north-west of Addis Ababa. The project has cost approximately US$135m and commissioning is planned for 2016. In addition to the Habesha project, PPC has started building projects in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.

Financial closure of this acquisition is expected in December 2014 once all conditions have been satisfied.

Taiwan: Taiwan Cement, is purchasing Sichuan Railway Group Cement for US$111m to expand its presence in China. Taiwan Cement made the purchase through its subsidiary TCC International Holdings. The Sichuan company's production site has a cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr.

Prior to the purchase TCC International operated two cement plants in Sichuan: one in Guangan with a cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr and the other in Chongqing with a capacity of 4Mt/yr. Following the purchase TCC International will boost its capacity to 8Mt/yr. Taiwan Cement said that the acquisition is expected to create synergies for TCC International, helping the company cut operating costs to improve its bottom line.

TCC International reported a 79.6% rise in net profit to US$134m for the first half of 2014. In addition to the purchase in Sichuan, Taiwan Cement said that TCC International will also add a new production line in its Guizhou plant later in November 2014 to boost its production capacity by an additional 1.5Mt/yr.

Tanzania: Dangote Cement has applied for a licence to build a 75MW coal-fired plant in Tanzania that would power a US$500m cement plant now under construction, Tanzania's energy watchdog has reported.

"Dangote Industries applied for a 75MW electricity generation licence to build, own and operate a coal-based captive power plant adjacent to its cement plant," the state-run Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA) said. All the generated electricity will be used to run the plant and associated utilities.

"Any interruption in power supply or unstable voltage/frequency causes extensive damage to the refractory and also to the rotary kiln parts. Refractory failures cause production shutdowns varying from 15 to 30 days and unscheduled use of costly imported refractory bricks," the regulator added.

The Dangote cement plant in southern Tanzania is scheduled to be commissioned in the second half of 2015. With a capacity of 3Mt/yr it will supply Tanzania's domestic market and export to landlocked nations in the region.

Ecuador: Peru's Gloria Yura Cement plans to invest US$230m in the construction of a new cement plant in Ecuador, according to the minister of Industry and Productivity in Ecuador, Ramiro Gonzalez.