Displaying items by tag: Lafarge

Poland: Lafarge has appointed Jacek Patyk as new director of the Malogoszcz cement plant. He will replace Miroslaw Majchrowicz, who will be in charge of Lafarge's cement plant in Beocin, Serbia

US: Lafarge and Holcim have announced further details on the package of assets that they propose to divest in the US as part of their planned merger to create LafargeHolcim. The divestments include:

- Lafarge's 1.1Mt/yr Davenport cement plant in Iowa and seven terminals along the Mississippi River. The units will be sold to Summit Materials for US$450m in cash plus Summit's Bettendorf, Iowa cement terminal;
- Holcim terminals in Michigan and Illinois;
- Holcim Skyway 600,000t/yr slag grinding station in Illinois;
- Holcim Camden 700,000t/yr slag grinding station in New Jersey, along with a terminal in Massachusetts.

The proposed divestments have been negotiated with the staff of the Federal Trade Commission and remain subject to review and approval by the commission. The divestments will be completed subject to acceptance by the commission and to the closing of the merger between Holcim and Lafarge.

Europe: On 14 April 2015 Holcim announced the names of the candidates proposed to join the board of directors of LafargeHolcim after the merger. The board will comprise 14 members, seven each designated by Holcim and Lafarge.

After the announcement, Holcim received a proposal in writing of its 10.8% shareholder Eurocement to elect Filaret Galchev to the board of directors of LafargeHolcim. According to Holcim, the proposal came too late to be considered by the board of directors of Holcim for inclusion into the agenda of the Extraordinary General Meeting on 8 May 2015.

Europe: Eurocement Holding AG, the second-largest shareholder in Holcim with a 10.8% stake, has said that it is nominating its owner Filaret Galchev for a position on the LafargeHolcim board. Galchev's name was not on a list of candidates for the post-merger board released earlier in April 2015, but Holcim's chairman had previously said that Holcim was open to giving Galchev a seat.

Philippines: Lafarge Republic Inc expects to raise its cement output by 17% with the opening of new mills at its plants in Rizal and Bulacan. Lafarge Republic president Renato Sunico said that the company expects to produce >7Mt/yr of cement by the end of 2015, up from 6Mt/yr at present.

The US$20.1m grinding mill at the plant in Teresa, Rizal that was inaugurated in April 2015 is expected to produce 850,000t/yr of cement. This increases the plant's output to 2Mt/yr. The new mill will also contribute to Lafarge Republic's commitment to sustainability as it reduces the plant's energy consumption by 40%. A similar 850,000t/yr capacity mill will also be installed at the plant in Norzagaray in Bulacan by December 2015. "The reason why we put up a new mill in Teresa and why we want to put up a new mill in Norzagaray, is because we want to make sure that we can serve demand," said Sunico.

With regards to the LafargeHolcim merger, no consolidation of the two companies' operations in the Philippines is required as Holcim has expressed plans to purchase some of LafargeRepublic's assets such as Lafarge Iligan Inc, Lafarge Mindanao Inc, Lafarge Republic Aggregates Inc and the Star Terminal at the Harbour Centre in Manila. CRH has also been given rights to acquire the remaining assets of Lafarge Republic, including the plants in Rizal, Bulacan, Batangas and Cebu.

Europe: In the framework of their proposed merger of equals, the boards of directors (BoD) of Holcim and Lafarge have nominated their candidates for the future BoD of LafargeHolcim, subject to closing of the transaction. The designated BoD will consist of 14 members due to be elected at the Holcim Extraordinary General Meeting on 8 May 2015.

The candidates are:

• Wolfgang Reitzle, Co-Chairman (currently Chairman of the BoD of Holcim);
• Bruno Lafont, Co-Chairman (currently Chairman of the BoD and Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge);
• Beat Hess, Vice-Chairman (currently Deputy Chairman of the BoD of Holcim);
• Bertrand Collomb (currently Honorary Chairman of Lafarge);
• Philippe Dauman (currently member of the BoD of Lafarge);
• Paul Desmarais Jr. (currently member of the BoD of Lafarge);
• Oscar Fanjul (currently Vice-Chairman of the BoD of Lafarge);
• Alexander Gut (currently member of the BoD of Holcim);
• Gérard Lamarche (currently member of the BoD of Lafarge);
• Adrian Loader (currently member of the BoD of Holcim);
• Nassef Sawiris (currently member of the BoD of Lafarge);
• Thomas Schmidheiny (currently member of the BoD of Holcim);
• Hanne Birgitte Breinbjerg Sørensen (currently member of the BoD of Holcim);
• Dieter Spälti (currently member of the BoD of Holcim).

Subject to the execution and completion of the merger project, Anne Wade and Jürg Oleas will resign from their office as members of the BoD at Holcim with effect as of the completion of the merger project.

Europe: The boards of directors of Lafarge and Holcim have approved the appointment of Eric Olsen as future Chief Executive Officer of LafargeHolcim, to be in office as from the closing of the merger project.

At present Eric Olsen is Lafarge Executive Vice-President of Operations. He has been a member of the Group's Executive Committee since 2007. Aged 51, Olsen has dual American and French nationalities. He has extensive international experience and has held senior positions in operations and in the fields of finance, human resources and strategy.

Commenting on the appointment, Wolfgang Reitzle, Chairman of the Holcim Board and future co-Chairman of LafargeHolcim, said, "I very much welcome Eric Olsen as future CEO for LafargeHolcim. With his broad international experience and insights in key markets, he is best positioned to lead the combined company for the benefit of employees, shareholders and customers. Bruno Lafont and I will support Eric in creating a new joint culture that will be the key driver for our premier competitive position."

Lafarge Chairman and CEO, and future LafargeHolcim co-Chairman, Bruno Lafont, added, "I have every confidence in his ability to deliver the synergies announced and ensure the development and the success of LafargeHolcim."

Spain: Spanish competition regulator CNMC has included Lafarge and Holcim in the proceedings for alleged cartel agreements brought up against a number of sector players at the end of 2014. Additionally, the CNMC has extended the proceedings to Materiales y Hormigones and Hormibusa. The move was based on information gathered during several inspections carried out in September 2014 for alleged exchange of information, price fixing and market division practices in the cement and concrete sector. The CNMC will complete the investigation and produce a resolution within 18 months.

Ireland: CRH is paying Euro700m 'over the odds' for a Euro6.5bn acquisition that would make it the world's third-biggest building materials supplier, according to a report from US-based AllianceBernstein (AB), a global asset management company.

CRH has agreed to buy a number of mostly European assets from Lafarge and Holcim for Euro6.5bn so the merging companies can get competition clearance for their plan to create the cement industry's biggest company. However, AB has raised doubts about the value of the deal for CRH. The move was also was overwhelmingly approved by shareholders at a recent extraordinary general meeting.

In a detailed report into the deal, AB said that the move represented "A step in the wrong direction for CRH. The acquisition price of Euro6.5bn is 12% above our Euro5.8bn estimate of the fair value of the assets."

Zambia: Lafarge Zambia will begin work on the US$217m expansion of its cement plant in Lusaka in 2015 despite the recent opening of Dangote's cement plant in the country and slow regional economic growth.

Construction will start in the second half of 2015 and be completed in 2018, according to Emmanuel Rigaux, chief executive of the plant. The work will double Lafarge's cement production capacity to 2Mt/yr.

Lafarge's expansion and Dangote's new plant are not expected to cause a cement glut in Zambia, mainly because of demand from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. "The growth there is massive, in fact it's even higher than in Zambia," said Rigaux.

Chinese and Zambian officials also appear to be planning the construction of a cement plant in Zambia: Find story here.