Reuters quoted Mr Lorenzo Zambrano CEO of Cemex as saying that he expects the company's US cement volumes to grow next year as the US housing market recovers.
Here are some facts about the company and it’s CEO
1. Cemex is the world's No 3 cement company and generated net sales of USD 21.7 billion in 2008. Its total assets were worth USD 45.4 billion last year, with operations across more than 50 countries. The company produced close to 96 million tonnes of cement in 2008.
2. Monterrey based Cemex opened its first plant in a poor northern Mexican town in 1906 and for decades was a small cement maker. Back in the mid 1980s, Mr Zambrano took over the company with USD 300 million in annual revenues.
3. Under Mr Zambrano, the company has bought more than 20 companies over the past two decades to build a business empire stretching across 5 continents.
4. Mr Zambrano used Mexico's falling trade barriers to enact his philosophy of buy or be bought.
5. Cemex became the top cement maker in the United States in 2007 after it made its biggest acquisition to date, Australia's Rinker for USD 16 billion including debt, one of the biggest ever purchases by an emerging markets company.
6. The takeover dwarfed Cemex's takeover of Britain's RMC Group for USD 5.8 billion in 2004, which at the time was the largest purchase by a Mexican company.
7. But the Rinker deal nearly proved to be Cemex's undoing. Cemex bought Rinker with billions of dollars in short term debt just as the US housing market crisis broke. As Cemex's sales collapsed around the world last year, the company faced its worst crisis in its century long history and some investors expected the company to default.
8. Cemex won a reprieve in August after it convinced bankers to refinance USD 15 billion in debt out until February 2014. But the deal doubles Cemex's debt servicing costs and the company was forced to sell its Australian assets to Swiss rival Holcim Limited at a fire sale price of USD 1.7 billion this month to help pay off debt.
9. Investors are now looking for signs of a rebound in the company's sales. Things are still bleak for the company, with US cement volumes set to fall 30% in 2009.
(Sourced from www.reuters.com)
