Displaying items by tag: Europe
Europe: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that a Greek law that requests employers to receive approval by the Labour ministry before making bulk redundancies is incompatible with European Union law. The judgement was made in relation to the layoff of a group of workers at the Halkida cement plant when Lafarge purchased the plant from AGET Heracles in 2013, according to the Athens News Agency. The Labour ministry blocked the request, citing conditions in the labour market, the financial situation of the company and the interest of the national economy. Lafarge then appealed to the Council of State, which then referred the case to the ECJ.
LEILAC secures Euro12m from European Union to demonstrate Calix carbon capture technology
21 April 2016Europe: The Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC) consortium has secured Euro12m in funding over five years from the European Commission Horizon 2020 Grant programme to test Calix’s direct separation process to capture CO2 emissions from cement and lime production. The consortium comprises HeidelbergCement, Cemex, Tarmac, Lhoist, Amec Foster Wheeler, ECN, Imperial College, PSE, Quantis and the Carbon Trust. The consortium will also contribute a further Euro9m towards the project.
During the first three years, the project will focus on finalising the design of the demonstration plant, to be constructed at the HeidelbergCement plant in Lixhe, Belgium once the necessary permits have been secured. The high temperature Direct Separation Calciner pilot unit will then undergo two years of testing in a standard operational environment, at a feed rate capacity of 240t/day of cement raw meal and 200t/day ground limestone respectively, on a continuous basis for several weeks.
Fundamental research on the process demands and performance will be carried out to demonstrate that the technology works sufficiently and robustly enough to be scaled up to full operational use. The project results will be shared widely with industry at key intervals during the testing.
Calix’s direct separation technology is achieved by re-engineering the process flows used in the best available technology for lime and cement calcination. Carbonate calcination occurs by indirect counterflow heating, and consequentially the flue gases are not mixed with the CO2 emitted from the carbonate minerals. This technology is already operating at a commercial scale for magnesite calcination. It does not require any separation technologies, new materials or processes. The technology is complementary with other carbon capture methods already developed in the power and cement sector, such as oxyfuel, and can make use of alternative fuels.
Court annuls information request by European Commission into cement company competition probe
11 March 2016Europe: The European Court of Justice has annulled a request for information by the European Commission into several cement producers in a cartel probe. The judgement could restrict the competition watchdog's investigative powers, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.
The commission opened an antitrust investigation in late 2010 looking at the activities of Cemex, Holcim, Lafarge, HeidelbergCement and others. Originally the cement companies were suspected by the commission of colluding with rivals to fix prices and share markets in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. However, the investigation was closed in mid-2015 due to insufficient evidence. Since then the cement producers have challenged the commission’s right to ask for the level of detail they requested. The ruling overturns a 2014 decision by the EU's General Court, which said the commission questionnaires were justified.
Mexico’s Cemex closes Euro160m sale of Austrian and Hungarian units
03 November 2015Europe: Cemex has completed the sale of its business operations in Austria and Hungary to Germany's Rohrdorfer Group for about Euro160m.
Cemex's Austrian operations, which comprise 24 aggregate quarries and 34 ready-mix plants, reported Euro219m in net sales in 2014. The operations in Hungary include five aggregate quarries and 34 ready-mix facilities and had net sales of some Euro42.7m in 2014.
Cemex hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, BNP Paribas and Morgan Stanley & Co International plc to act as financial advisors in this transaction. The proceeds from the sale will be used mainly to finance general corporate purposes and to pay off debt.
Cemex announces sale of its operations in Austria, Hungary and Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia
12 August 2015Europe: Cemex has signed an agreement for the sale of its operations in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.
Its assets in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia will be sold to Duna-Dráva Cement (HeidelbergCement) for approximately Euro231m. The assets mainly consist of three cement plants (approximately 1.66Mt of cement sold in 2014), two aggregate quarries (approximately 0.16Mt of aggregates sold in 2014) and seven ready-mix plants (approximately 0.25Mm3 of ready mix sold in 2014). Cemex's operations in Croatia, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia had net sales of approximately Euro124m in 2014.
Its assets in Austria and Hungary will be sold to Rohrdorfer Group for approximately Euro160m. The Austrian operations consist of 24 aggregate quarries (approximately 6.47Mt of aggregates sold in 2014) and 34 ready-mix plants (approximately 1.60Mm3 of ready-mix sold in 2014). Cemex's operations in Austria had net sales of approximately Euro217m in 2014. The Hungarian operations being divested consist of five aggregate quarries (approximately 1.36Mt of aggregates sold in 2014) and 34 ready-mix plants (approximately 0.46Mm3 of ready-mix sold in 2014). Cemex's operations in Hungary had net sales of approximately Euro42.2m in 2014.
The proceeds obtained from the transactions will be used mainly for debt reduction and for general corporate purposes. The closing of the transactions is subject to the satisfaction of standard conditions for this type of transaction, which includes authorisation by regulators. Cemex currently expects to finalise the transactions during the fourth quarter of 2015.
Cement antitrust case ‘not conclusive’
05 August 2015Europe: The European Commission has decided to close an antitrust investigation opened in December 2010 against a number of European cement manufacturers including Cemex, Holcim and HeidelbergCement, according to Construction Europe.
Originally the cement companies were suspected by the EC of colluding with rivals to fix prices in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The commission said that there had been indications suggesting possible import/export restrictions, market sharing, price co-ordination and information exchanges in the markets for cement and related products. It said that inspections had been carried out in November 2008 and September 2009 at the premises of companies in Germany, France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain.
The EC has now said that the evidence obtained in its investigation 'was not sufficiently conclusive to confirm these initial concerns,' adding 'the commission will continue to monitor closely developments in the European cement markets.'
The alleged cartel was said to have colluded in market sharing and price fixing in the markets for cement and cement-based materials such as ready-mix concrete, clinker, aggregates, blast-furnace slag, granulated blast-furnace slag, ground granulated blast-furnace slag and fly ash.
Europe: LafargeHolcim has decided to initiate a squeeze-out process for all issued and outstanding shares of Lafarge. After surpassing the necessary 95% threshold in the share capital and voting rights and following a decision by the board of directors, LafargeHolcim plans to request that the AMF implement a squeeze-out procedure pursuant to their general regulations for Lafarge shares not tendered to the Public Exchange Offer. LafargeHolcim will publish further details on the squeeze-out upon filing with the AMF.
Results of the re-opened LafargeHolcim public exchange offer
03 August 2015Europe: The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) has published the final results of the re-opened public exchange offer initiated by LafargeHolcim for the shares of Lafarge.
Some 25,901,191 additional Lafarge shares have been tendered. Following the settlement-delivery of the re-opened offer, which is expected to occur on 4 August 2015, LafargeHolcim will hold 278,131,864 Lafarge shares representing 96.41% of the share capital and at least 95.25% of the voting rights of Lafarge. As at least 95% of the share capital and voting rights in Lafarge have been tendered, LafargeHolcim could request the AMF to implement a squeeze-out procedure pursuant to the general regulations of the AMF for all issued and outstanding Lafarge shares not tendered to the public exchange offer. As of yet, no decision by the LafargeHolcim board of directors of LafargeHolcim has been taken in this regard.
LafargeHolcim outlines roadmap for 2015
29 July 2015Europe: LafargeHolcim has announced its roadmap for the second half of 2015 as it has released the 2015 half-year results for Lafarge and Holcim (click on links to see separate stories).
"We continue to operate in a demanding global market environment and this has affected our first-half performance," said Eric Olsen, CEO of LafargeHolcim. "However, as a new company we have hit the ground running. A team of 200 senior leaders of LafargeHolcim met as early as last week to align on priorities, targets and initiatives to drive the integration process. It is a great team we have on board. We have launched a set of synergy acceleration activities covering areas such as capital expenditure (capex), procurement, cement industrial performance, network optimisation as well as commercial transformation. We expect to see the first tangible results in all areas by the end of 2015."
LafargeHolcim expects to deliver at least Euro93.9m in synergies, impacting earnings until the end of 2015 as part of its programme to achieve Euro1.4bn run rate synergies by the third year of operations. LafargeHolcim has also launched a review of its asset base and the planned capital expenditures for the remainder of 2015. It targets an overall reduction in capex of at least Euro18.8m until the end of 2015, compared to what both companies had planned to spend on a standalone basis. This results in capex of below Euro1.31bn for the second half of 2015. In parallel, the company has also launched a portfolio review for further optimisation.
Further, LafargeHolcim has defined capital allocation discipline as a key focus area with a view to reduce capex and maximise cash generation and returns for shareholders. As a first step, LafargeHolcim has decided on a progressive dividend policy, starting at least at Euro1.22/share for the financial year 2015, subject to approval at the Annual General Meeting in 2016. This will apply to all shares, including the new shares to be awarded to shareholders as a scrip dividend of one share per 20 shares held that was announced in March 2015. This scrip dividend is now expected to be issued on 8 September 2015.
LafargeHolcim expects net proceeds of around Euro5.63bn by the end of 2015 from divestments that will be used to reduce debt, supporting a solid financial structure. This would lead to a net debt below Euro14.1bn by the end of 2015, prior to the fair value adjustment on the Lafarge debt and a potential squeeze-out of Lafarge.
Europe: In accordance with Article 20 of the Federal Act on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading (Stock Exchange Act), LafargeHolcim Ltd was informed by Schweizerische Cement-Industrie-Gesellschaft (Thomas Schmidheiny), Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (Jacqueline Desmarais, André Desmarais, Paul Desmarais Jr, Albert Frère), Eurocement Holding AG (Filaret Galchev-Kaltsidis), NNS Jersey Trust (Nassef Sawiris), Dodge & Cox and Harbor Funds about their number of voting rights and of the registered share capital they hold in LafargeHolcim Ltd as of 15 July 2015. The data is as follows:
- Schweizerische Cement-Industrie-Gesellschaft (Thomas Schmidheiny): 11.872%;
- Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (Jacqueline Desmarais, André Desmarais, Paul Desmarais Jr, Albert Frère): 9.84%;
- Eurocement Holding AG (Filaret Galchev-Kaltsidis): 6.38%;
- NNS Jersey Trust (Nassef Sawiris): 4.97% (3.99% in reg. shares);
- Dodge & Cox: 3.41%;
- Harbor Funds: 1.8609%.