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Displaying items by tag: Italy
Germany/Italy: HeidelbergCement has released details on how it will integrate Italcementi into its business. Key details of the plan include the sale of Italcementi’s Belgium operations, the retention of the Italcementi brand and headquarters and the Italian cement producer’s i.Lab centre will assume research and development responsibilities for the entire group. However the acquisition is expected to result in up to 260 job losses at Italcementi’s base in Bergamo. The full integration plan is expected to be complete by 2020.
“Following our motto ‘all business is local’, it is important for us to preserve Italcementi's strengths and professional expertise, which have ensured its success in Italy and abroad. I am convinced that we will be able to achieve the planned Euro400m in synergies and bring Italcementi back to profits by operational improvements, streamlining the administration and leveraging the increased size of our combined business,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement.
The acquisition still depends on approval from the European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. On 1 April 2016, HeidelbergCement formally submitted the merger plan to the European Commission.
To this end, HeidelbergCement has decided to sell Italcementi’s entire Belgian operations, primarily consisting of Italcementi’s Belgian subsidiary Compagnie des Ciments Belges. The proposed divestment would remove all overlaps between the activities of HeidelbergCement and Italcementi in Belgium and the Netherlands. Preparations forthe divestment have already started and ‘significant’ interest has been noted. BNP Paribas will support the process.
The plan presented in Bergamo by Scheifele says it intends to keep the industrial network and plants in Italy as well as the Italcementi brand. In addition, HeidelbergCement builds on Italian management heading the Group's operations in Italy. i.Lab, based in Bergamo, where Italcementi will keep the headquarter of Italian country organisation, will become the home of the product research and development division of the whole group.
In order to streamline the overall group organisation some staff and administrative functions will be centralised in Heidelberg. According to the integration plan around 170 people will receive relocation offers to other offices within the group. Any redundancies in Bergamo, which could potentially affect between 230 and 260 people, will be handled using Italy's temporary layoff scheme. In addition, severence packages will be negotiated with the unions. At the end of the transition period in 2020, about 210 to 250 professionals will remain in Bergamo.
HeidelbergCement expects the closing of the acquisition of the 45% stake to be finalised in early July 2016 depending on the decision of the cartel authorities in Europe and the USA. Implementation of the integration plan will start after the closing.
Italy: Italian economic development minister Federica Guidi is scheduled to meet with Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement, to discuss its acquisition of Italcementi. The transaction has been closely followed by the minister since its announcement and Guidi had already met Scheifele in the early stages of the process, according to the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper. HeidelbergCement had asked for more time to complete competition requirements at the European level before this latest meeting.
Italy: Cementir Italia has had its Euro125m offer to purchase Sacci SpA approved by the Italian Antitrust Authority, the company has said in a statement. The competition body gave its approval to Cementir Italia’s owner, Cementir Holding.
Cementir Italia submitted its offer for the business in November 2015. The target assets comprise five cement production plants in central and northern Italy, three terminals, several ready-mixed concrete facilities, most of which in central Italy, a transport service and some equity interests in other companies.
Cementir Italia will pay part of the acquisition price upon closing of the transaction and the remainder within 24 months from completion, Cementir said in a previous statement. The first part of the payment is subject to adjustment, it added. Cementir plans to finance the acquisition with new and existing debt.
Italcementi loss grows to Euro69.3m in 2015
19 February 2016Italy: Italcementi’s loss has grown by 41.7% year-on-year to Euro69.3m in 2015 from Euro48.9m in 2014. The multinational cement producer blamed this on falling revenue per unit amidst general poor markets, particularly in Egypt. Despite this its revenue grew by 3.5% to Euro4.3bn in 2015 from Euro4.16bn in 2014, boosted by a stronger fourth quarter and currency effects.
Overall cement clinker sales volumes remained unchanged in 2015 at 43.4Mt. Growth in North Africa, Middle East (Egypt and Kuwait) and the more contained growth in North America was counterbalanced by downturns in Europe, Asia and Trading.
Italcementi expects growth in North America, moderate sales growth Egypt and stability in emerging markets in 2016. Demand for building materials is expected to be stable overall in Italy, France and Belgium, with a general recovery elsewhere in Eastern European and Mediterranean markets. It plans to raise prices in all areas except for India and Thailand.
The group also announced that it has completed the procedures for the sale of non-core assets to Italmobiliare, under the agreements signed by Italmobiliare with HeidelbergCement. Italcementi will sell to its parent Italmobiliare the stakes it holds in renewable energy company Italgen and e-procurement specialist BravoSolution, in addition to a building in the centre of Rome. The asset sales will be wrapped up on finalisation of the agreement between Italmobiliare and HeidelbergCement.
Buzzi Unicem sales revenue rises by 6.2% to Euro2.66bn in 2015
11 February 2016Italy: Buzzi Unicem has reported that its revenue rose by 6.2% year-on-year to Euro2.66bn in 2015 from Euro2.51bn in 2014. Clinker and cement sales volumes increased by 1.7% to 25.6Mt from 25.1Mt. It attributed the growth to market recovery in the US and Eastern Europe and an additional contribution from the Korkino cement plant in Russia.
Following a sharp drop in business during the first six months of 2015, the group reported that the recovery in international trade recorded in the second half of the year was weaker and less than expected, especially in mature countries. Subsequently, its growth in 2015 was half of its previous estimate. Construction activity in the last quarter of 2015 was bolstered by a dry and mild climate in Italy, Central and Eastern Europe allowing construction activity to remain at levels above the seasonal average.
The group’s net debt fell to Euro1.03bn in 2015 from Euro1.06bn in 2014. It expects from preliminary data that its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) will be Euro470m in 2015.
Cementir profit rises by 3.1% to Euro103m in 2015
11 February 2016Italy: Cementir Holding has reported that its profit rose by 3.1% year-on-year to Euro103m in 2015 from Euro100m in 2014. Its revenue rose by 2.2% to Euro969m from Euro948m. It attributed the growth to good performance of operations in the Scandinavian countries, Malaysia, Italy and Egypt.
“The Group ended 2015 with earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in excess of the target of Euro190m. Improved performance in Scandinavian countries and Italy, plus the stable contribution of the Far East, offset the lower earnings in Turkey and Egypt caused by socio-political tensions across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, as well as the negative impact of the depreciation of some foreign currencies,” said Francesco Caltagirone Jr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cementir. He added that the group reduced its net debt to Euro222m in 2015.
The Italy-based building materials company produced 9.37Mt of cement in 2015, a decrease of 2% year-on-year from 9.56Mt in 2014.
HeidelbergCement issues Euro625m of debt certificates
15 January 2016Germany: HeidelbergCement has successfully issued debt certificates in the amount of Euro625m, further strengthening its financing structure. Due to high demand, it was possible to significantly increase the issue volume from Euro400m to Euro625m.
The newly-issued debt certificates, with a maturity date of 20 January 2022, consist of two tranches; one tranche with a floating rate and the other with a fixed rate. The fixed rate tranche yields at 1.85%/yr and the floating tranche at 1.5%/yr over six months Euribor.
The proceeds will be utilised to pre-fund the upcoming Italcementi acquisition and thereby reduce the volume of the bridge financing from Euro3.3bn to Euro2.7bn. The refinancing needs in the bond market decline to below Euro2bn, correspondingly.
Issuance of the debt certificates was secured with the assistance of Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen and Raiffeisen Bank International.
As previously reported, the bridge financing should be refinanced by free cash flow, the sale of production sites and the issuance of bonds. The reduction in the volume of bridge financing thus also reduces the need for refinancing in the bond market by the same amount.
Cementir Italia offers Euro125m to buy Sacci cement assets
30 December 2015Italy: Italian cement producer Sacci has accepted a Euro125m offer from Cementir Italia for the acquisition of a branch of Sacci, including assets in the cement, concrete and transport sector, replacing a previous offer presented by Buzzi Unicem. Cementir Italia will pay part of the price at the closing of the operation and the remaining part 24 months later.
Italcementi job cuts halved ahead of takeover
04 December 2015Italy: Labour undersecretary Teresa Bellanova has announced that layoffs at Italcementi will be 538, not 1080 as earlier reported. The deal to reduce job losses in Italcementi's workforce of 3000 in the was hammered out by government, unions and management ahead of the Euro3.7bn takeover by HeidelbergCement.
Italy's antitrust body opens probe into alleged cement price fixing
27 November 2015Italy: Italy's antitrust authority has opened an investigation into four cement companies for alleged price fixing and, with the tax police, has searched the offices of the companies, according to Reuters. The companies under investigation are Buzzi Unicem, Cementir Italia, Industria Cementi Giovanni Rossi and Holcim Italia.
"The case concerns the possibility of an agreement to coordinate cement sales price increases," said the authority in a statement.
Holcim Italia, part of LafargeHolcim, confirmed the inspections. It said that the company had always acted according to the law and has 'policies and procedures in place that are designed to ensure compliance with principles and rules of fair competition prohibiting anti-competitive behaviour and the abuse of a dominant market position.' Buzzi said that it is confident that it will be able to demonstrate during the investigation that it had always acted in compliance with competition law.