Cemex to sell businesses in central & eastern Europe

Cemex has announced plans to sell its operations in Austria, Croatia and Hungary. The Croatian divestment will also include assets in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.

The company is selling its Austrian and Hungarian operations to Rohrdorfer Group for € 160 million (US$ 178 million). The company, which is headquartered in Rohrdorf, Germany, is a cement and aggregates producer with 40 locations across Austria, Germany, Hungary and Italy.

The deal with Cemex will see it add 24 aggregates quarries with an output in 2014 of 6.47 tonnes, and 34 ready-mixed concrete plants with a production of 1.60 million m3 in 2014 in Austria. Cemex said the businesses had revenues of US$ 241 million in 2014.

The operations being sold in Hungary comprise five aggregates quarries which produced 1.36 million tonnes of materials last year, and 34 ready-mixed concrete plants with output of 0.46 million m3 in 2014. Revenues came to US$ 47 million.

The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and Cemex said it expected it to close by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the deal for its businesses across the former Yugoslavia is worth € 231 million (US$ 246 million), and will see Duna-Drava, the Hungarian subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement, acquire assets across four countries.

The businesses comprise three cement plants, which sold 1.66 million tonnes last year, two aggregates quarries, which produced 0.16 million tonnes of material last year, and seven ready-mixed concrete plants with an output of 0.25 million m3. Cemex said their net sales were US$ 138 million in 2014.

Again, the deal is subject to regulatory approvals and Cemex said it expected it to close by the end of this year.

Cemex said it would use the total proceeds of some US$ 424 million for debt reduction and general corporate purposes.