Displaying items by tag: Romania

Romania: Holcim Romania has appointed Bogdan Dobre as its chief executive officer (CEO). He suceeds Horia Adrian, who has held the post for the last three years.

Dobre started working for Holcim Romania in 2000. Originally he worked as Regional Cement Sales Manager before later becoming National Cement Sales Manager and eventually Commercial Director for the company in 2013 until 2020. He graduated from the Organic Chemistry Faculty within Bucharest University and holds an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) from Tiffin University, US.

Romania: Holcim Romania and its subsidiary Somaco have donated around Euro0.95m to local hospitals to help buy equipment to manage the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 20 hospitals in the counties of Alba, Arad, Argeș, Bihor, Buzău, Cluj, Dâmbovița, Iași, Neamț, Prahova, Timiș, Vrancea and Bucharest will benefit from the funds. It will be used to buy protective gear and medical equipment such as medical monitors, ventilators and fans. This latest donation follows one in April 2020 bringing Holcim Romania’s total to around Euro1.5m.

Sri Lanka: Insee Cement has appointed Gustavo Navarro as its chief executive officer (CEO) of its operations in Sri Lanka. He succeeds Nandana Ekanayake, according to the Nation newspaper. Ekanayake will remain at the company as chairman of the board. Navarro has previously held chief executive positions for Holcim in Serbia and Russia, and for CRH in Romania.

Romania/Switzerland: Romania’s anti-trust authority has completed its review of LafargeHolcim’s takeover of the precast concrete manufacturer Someco for an undisclosed sum. SeeNews has reported that the body found that “no significant obstacles to effective competition” were raised by the deal.

Somaco’s five precast concrete and one aerated concrete block production plants, which employ 750 people, made sales of Euro56m in 2018.

Romania: The national competition authority stated yesterday that it will investigate LafargeHolcim’s deal with Oresa for the latter’s takeover of the precast concrete producer Somaco. LafargeHolcim assumed the asset in July 2019 at an undisclosed price.

Romania: Holcim Romania plans to spend Euro10m on automation and digitisation upgrades to its plants. The project will focus on its integrated plants at Alesd and Compulung, according to the Ziarul Financiar newspaper. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim operates three cement plants in the country.

Romania: LafargeHolcim has signed an agreement with Oresa to buy Somaco, precast concrete producers. The transaction will allow LafargeHolcim to develop its position on the Romanian building materials market, where the company is already present in the cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates segments. No value for the transaction has been disclosed. It is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in late 2019.

“This is our sixth bolt-on acquisition this year and we are delivering on our commitment to further develop our Solutions & Products business segment as part of Strategy 2022 – ‘Building for Growth.’ The acquisition enables LafargeHolcim to enter Romania’s fast growing precast concrete market and to become an integrated solutions provider for our local customers,” said Jan Jenisch, chief executive officer (CEO) of LafargeHolcim.

Somaco operates five precast concrete plants and one plant for aerated blocks in Romania. The company reported net sales of Euro56m in 2018 and has 750 employees. It has a portfolio of precast products for bridges, tunnels, subways and logistics platforms and supplies products for the residential sector.

Romania: The Competition Council says it has found irregularities in the cement market. Following an investigation started in the autumn of 2018 it has revealed that the country’s three major producers – Holcim, CRH and HeidelbergCement – were operating with high profit margins and similar market share, according to Business News Europe. It noted that geographic distribution of customers around the three companies’ production facilities might support a hypothesis of market collusion. It also reported similar production capacity utilisation rates between the main producers despite different production capacities.

The Competition Council has not drawn any conclusions from the report. Previously, it said that if it does find any evidence of cartel-like behaviour it could apply a fine of up to 10% of company turnover.

Romania: Data from CIROM, the Romanian cement association, shows that cement sales grew by 5.5% year-on-year to 8.9Mt in 2018, according to the
Ziarul Financiar newspaper. The country operates nine integrated cement plants run by HeidelbergCement, LafargeHolcim and CRH.

Romania: The Competition Council has launched an investigation into an alleged anti-competitive agreement between Holcim, CRH and HeidelbergCement in early November 2018. It is concerned that there has been possible coordination of prices between the companies since 2010. As part of the probe, it conducted raids at the headquarters of the three companies and seized documentation. It has warned that fines of up to 10% of company turnover are applicable should it find any evidence of collusion. However, it also mentioned that companies that cooperated with the competition authority could expect leniency in the form of immunity to or reduced fines.