Displaying items by tag: Martin Marietta

US: Martin Marietta Materials has completed its US$2.3bn takeover of Lehigh Hanson’s West Region business. The acquisition enlarges the company’s cement assets by two new plants and related distribution terminals, as well as targeted downstream operations, in California and Arizona.

Chair, president and CEO Ward Nye said "We are pleased to complete the Lehigh West Region acquisition and welcome a talented group of new employees to the Martin Marietta team. These assets serve as a new growth platform for our continued geographic expansion and are uniquely positioned to benefit from favourable market dynamics and accelerating public and private construction activity in California and Arizona.” He added “We are confident in our ability to quickly realise the benefits of this transaction and deliver significant value creation for our shareholders, customers and employees following the same proven approach we took with our acquisitions of TXI and Bluegrass."

US: Hanson Aggregates has purchased 577ha of land near Buckeye, Arizona. The Phoenix Business Journal newspaper has reported that the company will use the land to produce ready-mix concrete and rock products and. Martin Marietta Materials agreed to acquire Germany-based HeidelbergCement’s US West regional business, which included Hanson Aggregates, in May 2021 for US$2.3bn.

HeidelbergCement confirmed the rumours this week with the announcement that it was selling assets in the western US to Martin Marietta for US$2.3bn. The deal covers subsidiary Lehigh Hanson’s US West region cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete and asphalt businesses in California, Arizona, Oregon and Nevada. This includes two of its cement plants, with the exception of the 1.5Mt/yr Permanente cement plant in California, related distribution terminals, 17 active aggregates sites and several downstream operations. The companies expect to conclude the deal by 2022 but naturally it is subject to approval by competition bodies.

Well, this is a big one considering that one of the catalysts for the group’s divestment plan was the reduction of the value of its total assets by Euro3.4bn in July 2020 following a review. Depending on the exchange rate, the value of the divestment to Martin Marietta covers half to two thirds of that amount. Group chairman Dominik von Achten later told the media in February 2021 that the company was planning to sell the first of the five assets in early-to-mid 2021. However, cement isn’t the full story here since Lehigh Hanson operates three integrated plants in California and seven terminals. So, by elimination, the Tehachapi and Redding plants are the ones that are being sold along with some combinations of the terminals. Both of those plant have production capacities of around 0.8Mt/yr. Unless the terminals being sold have been valued highly, then the majority of the deal appears to encompass some or all of the 25-odd aggregate sites, 15 asphalt sites and 30 ready-mix concrete sites the company operates in the four states.

On the cement side it doesn’t seem unreasonable at face value for the authorities to allow Martin Marietta to take over most of Lehigh Hanson’s business in the region since it should broaden competition from a production angle. Instead of five companies in California with integrated plants, there will be six. For Martin Marietta, the deal also carries the feel of unfinished business in the region since it briefly held a cement business there for around a year in the mid-2010s. It acquired Texas Industries (TXI) in July 2014 and then sold the cement business in California to CalPortland in September 2015.

Both companies are pursuing different strategies. HeidelbergCement says it is hunkering down on its other four North American regions – the US Midwest, Northeast and South, plus Canada - through selected ‘bolt-on’ acquisitions and plant upgrades. Martin Marietta says it wants to take advantage of long term demand trends such as increased state infrastructure investment in California and Arizona and private-sector growth. It also reassured shareholders with its version of the acquisition/divestment story by saying it was going to generate value the same way it did previously with TXI. It’s a small thing but the acquisition also sees the US’ largest domestic cement producer increase its production base. The top five North American cement producers will remain controlled by companies headquartered in Europe but it is a step towards regionalism.

As for who’s right, in the short term, the west coast region looks good. The area included some of the best performing states in 2020 in terms of growth in cement consumption year-on-year in 2020 with the exception of Oregon. In its winter forecast the Portland Cement Association (PCA) attributed growth in the Mountain region of the US (including Nevada) to underlying economic fundamentals and favourable demographic trends, although it expected this to slow down in 2021. In the Pacific region it forecast consumption to grow modestly in 2021 due to residential construction. As if to underline the current situation, Cemex decided to recommission a kiln in Mexico in February 2021 to cope with cement shortages and project delays in California, Arizona and Nevada.

In the face of these figures HeidelbergCement’s decision to sell suggests either it dangled a juicy proposition with good short term prospects in front of the buyers or its long term projections are pointing elsewhere. Selling up, yet holding onto its largest cement plant in the region, also smacks of hedging its bets. No doubt it will be holding on to a few terminals too. On the other hand, it would be very interesting indeed to know what part, if any, HeidelbergCement’s internal carbon price played in its decision to divest in the western US. California has the country’s biggest carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS). If say, legislators suddenly decided to follow the price trend of the European Union’s ETS then things might look different.

US: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Lehigh Hanson has agreed to sell its assets in its US West region to Martin Marietta for US$2.3bn. The transaction includes the sale of its business activities in cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete and asphalt in California, Arizona, Oregon and Nevada, with the exception of the Permanente cement plant and quarry. The sale includes two cement plants with related distribution terminals, 17 active aggregates sites and several downstream operations. The companies expect to conclude the deal by 2022 subject to regulatory approval.

“The sale of our US West region activities is a major step in our portfolio optimisation as part of our ‘Beyond 2020’ strategy,” said Dominik von Achten, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. “We are simplifying our portfolio in North America and prioritising on the strongest market positions.” Chris Ward, president and chief executive officer of Lehigh Hanson added, “We will accelerate the build-out of our positions in the four key regions Canada, Midwest, Northeast and South through selected bolt-on acquisitions and capacity expansion projects in the future.”

US: Martin Marietta’s total revenue remained stable at US$4.73bn in 2020. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 11% year-on-year to US$1.39bn from US$1.25bn in 2019. Cement shipments rose by 11.7% year-on-year to 1.1Mt in fourth-quarter of 2020 due to strong demand in Texas.

“As we move forward, we believe underlying demand fundamentals will reset, establishing 2021 as the year during which the nation regains its economic footing,” said Ward Nye, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Martin Marietta. He added, “We anticipate single-family housing growth, expanded infrastructure investment and notable heavy industrial projects of scale will support the company’s near-term shipment levels. We expect these demand drivers, combined with the ancillary construction necessary for housing community buildouts and the potential increased infrastructure investment from a comprehensive Federal surface transportation package, should provide for multi-year growth in product demand,”

US: HeidelbergCement is considering selling assets in California. Bloomberg News reports that it is working with Morgan Stanley on a potential divestment and it hopes to raise around US$1.5bn. It is reportedly approaching competitors including Martin Marietta Materials, Cemex, CRH, Summit Materials and LafargeHolcim, as well as companies in China and Latin America. The first bids are not expected until early 2021.

The Germany-based building materials company operates three integrated cement plants in California, as part of its Lehigh Hanson subsidiary, in addition to concrete and aggregates units. Divestment of these assets would focus the company instead on markets in the East Coast, Midwest and Canadian regions of North America.

In July 2020 HeidelbergCement announced that it had reduced its value of its assets by Euro3.4bn following a review. It blamed this on reduced demand for building materials due the coronavirus pandemic and the devaluation of its Hanson subsidiary in the UK, in part related to the UK’s exit from the European Union.

US: Martin Marietta has benefited from aggregate sales volume growth in the first quarter of 2019. Its revenue grew by 17% year-on-year to US$939m from US$802m. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 28% to US$159m from US$124m. However, the gross profit on its cement business was down and both sales and profit was down for ready-mixed concrete (RMX). Despite this the company said that its cement shipments and pricing increased 7.3% due to demand in Texas, a new Houston-area sales yard and an enhanced product line.

US: Martin Marietta's sales rose by 7% year-on-year to US$4.24bn in 2018 from US$3.97bn in 2017. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) remained stable at US$1.1bn. Revenue from its cement business grew by 4.5% to US$388m from US$371m.Cement shipments increased slightly to 3.5Mt. The building materials company said that its cement shipments had been negatively affected by bad weather in the fourth quarter. The bulk of the company's revenue comes from it aggregate business followed by ready-mix concrete.

US: Dorothy M Ables has been appointed to the board of directors of Martin Marietta Materials. With Ables’ appointment, the Martin Marietta board comprises 10 directors, four of whom have joined since 2016. She will serve on Martin Marietta’s Audit Committee.

Ables, aged 60 years, brings financial and operational experience to the Martin Marietta board. Most recently, she served as Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Spectra Energy from 2008 until her retirement in early 2017, completing a career of over 30 years at Spectra Energy and its predecessor companies. As CAO, Ables was responsible for information technology, human resources, support services and community relations. Prior to that, she held roles as Vice President of Audit Services and as Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for Spectra, and as Senior Vice President and chief financial officer (CFO) for Duke Energy Gas Transmission. Ables began her career in the audit department of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co, a predecessor of KPMG.

Ables currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Cabot Oil & Gas, where she is on the Audit and Compensation Committees. She also sits on the board of Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting.

US: Martin Marietta Materials has appointed James AJ Nickolas as its new chief financial officer (CFO) with effect from mid-August 2017. He will also become a Senior Vice President and will report to C Howard Nye, chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO). He replaces Anne H Lloyd who is set to retire in September 2017.

Nickolas, aged 46 years, joins Martin Marietta from Caterpillar where he currently serves as the head of Corporate Development. Previously, as Group Chief Financial Officer of Caterpillar’s Resources Industries segment, he was responsible for financial planning and reporting, internal controls, compliance and M&A activity. Before joining Caterpillar in 2008, Nickolas was Executive Director at JP Morgan Securities where he worked on originating and executing debt and equity capital raising and mergers and acquisitions. He began his professional career as a Certified Public Accountant at Coopers & Lybrand where he was a senior tax associate. He holds a BS degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and both an MBA in Finance and a JD degree from the University of Chicago.

Lloyd, aged 56 years, joined Martin Marietta in 1998 as Vice President and Controller. She was named Chief Accounting Officer in 1999 and was promoted to CFO in 2005. She was named Executive Vice President in 2009. As CFO, she has led the financial areas of Martin Marietta, including financial reporting, accounting, internal audit, investor relations, tax and treasury.