New assets lead to impressive 1Q13 for Cimpor

Cimpor’s turnover reached €635.9 million in 1Q13, up 22% from the €521.2 million achieved in 1Q12. Around €308.3 million of this was generated by assets acquired from InterCement in the 2012 asset swap. The exchanged assets also helped EBITDA to increase by 15.2% to €147.4 million. The assets gained in the swap contributed €68 million to EBITDA, four times the amount generated in 1Q12 by the assets Cimpor handed over. However, the assets that Cimpor retained did not fare as well, particularly in Portugal and South Africa, which were hit by declining domestic consumption and increased competition from imports, respectively. EBITDA generated from these assets fell by 29.1% y/y to €79.4 million. Cimpor’s EBITDA margin dropped to 23.2% following restructuring costs in Portugal.

Total cement and clinker sales volumes came in at 6.4 million t, up 5.9% compared to the corresponding period last year as the high performance of new assets mitigated falling sales for Cimpor’s remaining assets. Sales volumes decreased by more than 25% in Cape Verde due to low cement demand and volumes were down 8.4% to 249 000 t in South Africa. In Portugal sales fell by 6.6% as rising exports (up 42.2%) helped to offset local market contraction. However, cement and clinker sales increased by 2.9% to 819 000 t in Egypt despite fuel supply issues, and rose by 23.4% in Mozambique where cement consumption continues to grow. The assets acquired from InterCement resulted in sales increasing by 100.5% to reach 2.89 million t in Brazil and to 1.5 million t of cement and clinker being sold in Argentina and Paraguay. In Paraguay, sales were based on imported cement as the production facility is still under construction.

Adapted from press release by Louise Fordham.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/30052013/cimpor_positive_1q13_results_999/