In a statement, the building materials giant said the managing board agreements of Daniel Gauthier and Andreas Kern, which expire on 30 June 2016, will not be extended. At the same time, three new members have been appointed to the managing board and a new managing board function has been created for the Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin area.
As from 1 February 2016, the new members of the managing board will be: Hakan Gurdal from Turkey, currently president of the strategic business unit - cement,
Also, due to the increased number of Group countries after the closing of the Italcementi acquisition, HeidelbergCement will be divided into five Group areas at managing board level: Western and Southern Europe (Dr Dominik von Achten, based in Heidelberg); Northern and Eastern Europe-Central Asia (Dr Albert Scheuer, Heidelberg); Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin (Hakan Gurdal, Heidelberg); North America (Jon Morrish, Dallas); and Asia-Pacific (Kevin Gluskie, Singapore).
The areas of responsibility of Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board, and Dr Lorenz Näger, chief financial officer, remain unchanged.
“The global business activities of HeidelbergCement are even better represented by the newly appointed members to the managing board. Their comprehensive market knowledge and long-term operative experience as well as technological expertise are an important factor of success for HeidelbergCement,” said Dr Scheifele, who added: ‘The new appointments to the managing board stand for a generation change and are also a sign of continuity in the top management of the company on its way to becoming one of the largest building materials groups in the world.”
Meanwhile, HeidelbergCement has taken another step to optimise the financing of its Italcementi acquisition. The volume of the bridge financing could be reduced by further €500 million from €3.8 billion to €3.3 billion. The refinancing needs in the bond market declined by €500 million to around €2.5 billion, correspondingly.
Decisive for the reduction of the financing volume was that some of Italcementi’s creditor banks have agreed to waive their change of control clauses. As a consequence, HeidelbergCement will have access to additional credit lines totalling €500 million on a long-term basis also after the takeover. Therefore, refinancing of these credit lines after the acquisition is no longer necessary, and the volume of the bridge financing could be reduced accordingly. As already stated in the announcement of the Italcementi acquisition, 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.
With Group revenue at €12.6 billion in 2014, HeidelbergCement is one of the world’s largest building materials companies.
