Displaying items by tag: Holcim
Nigeria: BUA Cement has appointed Jacques Piekarski as its chief financial officer (CFO).
Piekarski holds over 26 years of experience in finance with executive level roles in cement, trading, mining and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Prior to joining BUA Cement, he was Group CFO for TGI Group Nigeria, a food and agricultural conglomerate, and he held the same role at Flour Mills of Nigeria. His knowledge of the cement industry comes from working as the CFO for Holcim in Egypt with a joint venture with the Orascom Group.
A Swiss and French National, Piekarski was born in Switzerland. He is a graduate from the Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and holds an MBA from the Robert Kennedy College in Zurich, Switzerland.
Jaime Rocha Font appointed head of Elementia
24 June 2020Mexico: Elementia has appointed Jaime Rocha Font as its new chief executive officer (CEO) with effect from 2 September 2020. He succeeds Fernando Ruiz Jacques, who will focus on, “new business and development opportunities.” Rocha and Ruiz will work together over the transition process.
Rocha is currently the CEO of Elementia’s Cement Division, including Cementos Fortaleza in Mexico and Costa Rica, as well as Giant Cement Holding in the US. He holds 29 years of experience in the cement industry, and prior to Elementia he held a number of senior positions at Holcim. He has a degree in Civil Engineering from Universidad Católica de Chile and an MBA and postgraduate studies from the IMD in Switzerland, the Free University of Brussels in Belgium and IPADE in Mexico.
CRH to sell up in Brazil
27 December 2019Brazil: Ireland-based CRH has engaged the US-based bank Citigroup to seek buyers for its Brazilian business, which consists of the integrated 0.7Mt/yr Arcos plant and 0.6Mt/yr Cantaglo plant and the 1.0Mt/yr Santa Luzia grinding plant, according to the Brazilian Valor newspaper. CRH acquired the assets from Holcim and Lafarge at the time of the merger of the Swiss and French companies.
Holcim Switzerland promotes family life
15 October 2019Switzerland: Holcim Switzerland has ratified a new collective labour agreement (CCL) with two unions. Finanznachrichten has reported that under the new arrangement the company’s 570 employees will be able to receive two weeks’ paid paternity leave. Lena Frank, head of personnel negotiations, stated that “the compatibility between work and family is central to equality. The new regulation is therefore an important step forward.”
Thomas Schmidheiny reduces stake in LafargeHolcim
12 June 2019Switzerland: Thomas Schmidheiny says he has reduced his share in LafargeHolcim to 7.2% from 10.9% to diversify his investment portfolio. He said that the decision was part of his ‘retirement and heritage’ planning, according to Reuters. He has no plans to minimise his stake any further.
Schmidheiny was made honorary chairman of LafargeHolcim in 2018 when he stepped down from the board. He began his career at Holcim in 1970. He became a member of the executive committee six years later and served as chief executive officer (CEO) between 1978 and 2001. After joining the board of directors in 1978 he was chairman of the board of directors from 1984 until 2003. Later, he was a key part of the merger between Holcim and Lafarge that completed in 2015.
Council reverses decision to buy Westport assets
12 June 2018New Zealand: The Buller District Council has backed out of plans to buy Holcim Cement’s former Westport plant assets and land on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, including a water supply and treatment plant, a quarry, land, silos and a packing plant.
Buller District Mayor Garry Howard said that the council has been negotiating for over a year on US$3.5m deal, but concerns over the Cape Foulwind site led to it abandoning its plans. He said that buying the former cement plant site could have made the council liable for remediation of the land. Howard says the council had been keen to get the quarry as a source of rock for river and coastal protection.
Westport lost over 100 jobs when Holcim closed the cement plant in 2016, after 58 years of operation.
Is the Holcim takeover of Lafarge complete?
30 May 2018LafargeHolcim’s announcement this week that it is to close its headquarters in Paris is the latest sign of the tension within the world’s largest cement producer. The decision is rational for a company making savings in the aftermath of the merger of two rivals – France’s Lafarge and Switzerland’s Holcim – back in 2015. Yet, it also carries symbolic weight. Lafarge was an iconic French company that had been in operation since 1833. Its hydrated lime was used to build the Suez Canal, one of the great infrastructure projects of the 19th century.
In the lead up to the merger in 2015 the union of Lafarge and Holcim was repeatedly described as one of equals. However, the diverging share price between the two companies killed that idea on the balance sheets in early 2015. Renegotiation on the share-swap ratio between the companies followed with an exchange ratio of nine Holcim shares for 10 Lafarge shares. In the end Holcim’s shareholders ended up owning 55.6% of LafargeHolcim. Lafarge’s Bruno Lafont lost out on the top job as chief executive officer (CEO) in the frenzy but the role did go to another former Lafarge executive. The new company also retained its former corporate offices in both France and Switzerland.
Since the merger LafargeHolcim has underperformed, reporting a loss of Euro1.46bn in 2017. Former senior executives from Lafarge have become embroiled in a legal investigation looking at the company’s conduct in Syria. LafargeHolcim’s first chief executive officer Eric Olsen resigned from the company in mid-2017 following fallout from a review into the Syria affair. Both Olsen and Lafont are currently under investigation by the French police into their actions with respect to a cement plant that the company kept operational during the on-going Syrian conflict. Olsen’s replacement, Jan Jenisch, is a German national who previously ran the Swiss building chemicals manufacturer Sika.
Regrettably the closure of LafargeHolcim’s corporate office in Paris will also see the loss of 97 jobs although some of the workers in Paris will be transferred to Clamart, in the south-western suburbs of the city. Another 107 jobs will also be cut in Zurich and Holderbank in Switzerland.
One more knock at the local nature of cement companies in the very international arena they operate in doesn’t mean that much beyond bruised national pride. British readers may mourn the loss of Blue Circle or Rugby Cement but the country still has a cement industry even if it mostly owned by foreign companies. France’s industry is doing better as it recovers following the lost decade since the financial crisis in 2008.
Jump to 2018 and LafargeHolcim is being run by a German with links to Switzerland, Holcim shareholders had the advantage during the merger, its former Lafarge executives and assets are facing legal scrutiny over its conduct in Syria and Lafarge’s old headquarters in Paris are being closed. LafargeHolcim in France still retains the group’s research and development centre at Lyon and a big chunk of the local industry. Yet Holcim has held an advantage ever since the final terms of the Lafarge-Holcim merger agreement were agreed so this slow slide to Switzerland is not really a surprise. From a distance it feels very much like the Holcim acquisition of Lafarge is finally complete.
Thomas Schmidheiny to leave board of LafargeHolcim
04 April 2018Switzerland: Thomas Schmidheiny has decided not to stand for re-election for the board of LafargeHolcim. In recognition of his years of service to LafargeHolcim and its predecessor company Holcim, the board of directors has decided to name Schmidheiny honorary chairman of the group. He will remain one of the group’s main shareholders. Fellow board member Bertrand Collomb has also decided to stand down.
“For almost 50 years Thomas Schmidheiny has made a significant contribution to the success of Holcim and later LafargeHolcim. He was instrumental in successfully expanding into promising growth markets and has made Holcim one of the leading companies in its industry. On behalf of the board and all employees I would like to thank Thomas Schmidheiny for his exceptional contribution to our company,” said Beat Hess, chairman of the board of LafargeHolcim. He also thanked Collomb for his contribution to Lafarge and then LafargeHolcim.
Schmidheiny began his career at Holcim in 1970. He became a member of the executive committee six years later and served as chief executive officer (CEO) between 1978 and 2001. After joining the board of directors in 1978 he was chairman of the board of directors from 1984 until 2003. Later, he was a key part of the merger between Holcim and Lafarge that completed in 2015.
Collomb joined Lafarge in 1975. After serving in different management positions, including Head of North American operations, he served as chairman and CEO of Lafarge from 1989 to 2003, as chairman until 2007 and then subsequently director until 2012. He was named honorary chairman of Lafarge in 2007 and joined LafargeHolcim’s Board in 2015. Collomb has also decided not to stand for re-election at the upcoming annual general meeting, in order to follow a customary age limit of 75 years.
All other current members of the board of directors will be proposed for re-election at the annual general meeting. This will include: Beat Hess; Oscar Fanjul; Paul Desmarais, Jr; Patrick Kron; Gérard Lamarche; Adrian Loader; Jürg Oleas; Nassef Sawiris; Hanne Birgitte Breinbjerg Sørensen; and Dieter Spälti. Following the election of the nominees the board of directors will drop in size to 10 members compared to 12 at present.
Colombia: The Superintendent of Industry and Commerce (SIC) has fined Cementos Argos, Cemex and Holcim and six senior managers US$68m for fixing the price of Ordinary Portland Cement. The fine covers behaviour by the companies between January 2010 and December 2012. SIC’s investigation discovered that collusion between the cement producers artificially increased the price of cement by 30% despite inflation being 9% during the period.
Cementos Argos responded to the sanction by saying that it rejected the fine and decision by SIC. Following an earlier statement in October 2017 it once again criticised SIC’s methods. According to Reuters, both Holcim and Cemex disagreed with the finding and they said they would take legal action against it.
Appeals to Italian competition regulator deferred until June 2018
13 November 2017Italy: Appeals by Italian cement producers to the judiciary of Lazio against fines imposed by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has been deferred to June 2018. Italcementi, Buzzi Unicem, Colacem, Cementir, Sacci, Holcim, Cementirossi, Barbetti, Cementeria di Monselice, Cementizillo, Calme, Moccia, TSC and the Italian Cement Association (AITEC) were penalised more than Euro184m in July 2017 for allegedly coordinating sales prices and agreeing market share from June 2011 to January 2016, according to the ANSA news agency. The majority of the fine was levied on Italcementi and Buzzi Unicem at around Euro84m and Euro60m respectively. Itacementi started appealing against the sanctions in August 2017.