CEMEX’s Q3 2012 sales increase 2%

643 Cemex’s consolidated net sales reached US$3.9 billion (€3 billion) during the third quarter of 2012, an increase of 2% on a like-to-like basis for the ongoing operations and adjusting for currency fluctuations, versus the comparable period in 2011.
The company says this was due to higher prices in local currency terms in most of its regions, while operating EBITDA increased by 9% during the quarter to US$730 million versus the same period in 2011, and on a like-to-like basis it increased by 13% in the same period.

The figures show that operating income in the third quarter increased by 35%, to 410 million and the operating EBITDA margin grew by 1.8 percentage points on a year-over-year basis reaching 18.7%. During the third quarter of 2012, controlling interest net income was a loss of $203 million, an improvement over the loss of $730 million in the same period last year.

The infrastructure and residential sectors were the main drivers of demand in most of CEMEX’s markets.

Fernando A. González, executive vice president of finance and administration, said: “We are pleased with our 13% growth in operating EBITDA, on a like-to-like basis, on the back of a 2% growth in consolidated net sales. This is the highest EBITDA generation since the third quarter of 2009 and the fifth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year EBITDA increase.

“An improvement in pricing and volume in several of our regions as well as the continued success of our transformation effort has led to the highest operating EBITDA margin in three years. We are particularly pleased with the quarterly performance of our operations in Mexico, United States and the South, Central America and the Caribbean and Asia regions.

“During the quarter we successfully completed the refinancing of our August 2009 financing agreement. Earlier this month, we also issued $1.5 billion in senior secured notes. We will use the proceeds from these notes to satisfy the $1 billion March 2013 prepayment milestone and the $500 million amortisation due in February 2014 under the new facilities agreement. With these prepayments, we will have no significant maturities until February of 2014.

“Also, during the quarter we signed a ten-year strategic agreement with 6522 IBM. Under this agreement, IBM will provide finance, accounting, and human-resource back-office services, as well as IT infrastructure, application development and maintenance services. We expect this agreement will result in approximately $1 billion in savings during the life of the contract.

“We also remain focused on our transformation process and expect an incremental improvement of $200 million in our steady-state EBITDA during 2012, reaching a run rate of $400 million by the end of this year.”