A year of recovery for CEMEX
Company announces its consolidated fourth-quarter and full-year financial results for 2012
CEMEX have announced that for the full year 2012, operating EBITDA increased by 10% to US$2.6 billion, with net sales reaching US$15.0 billion, a decline of 2% on a year-over-year basis.
During the fourth quarter, operating EBITDA increased by 13% to US$611 million while net sales were stable at US$3.7 billion. Once again, the infrastructure and residential sectors were said to be the main drivers of demand in most of the company’s markets.
Operating earnings before other expenses in the fourth quarter increased by 26%, to US$285 million, from the comparable period in 2011, and increased by 35%, to US$1.3 billion, for the full-year 2012.
Operating EBITDA increased during the fourth quarter by 13% and increased 10% for the full- year 2012, while operating EBITDA margin grew by 1.9% and 2.0% during the quarter and the full year 2012, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.
Commenting on the results, Fernando A. González, executive vice-president of finance and administration, said: ‘2012 was a year of recovery for CEMEX. During the year, we achieved the highest EBITDA generation and operating EBITDA margin since 2009, and the fourth quarter was the sixth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year EBITDA increase.
‘We are particularly pleased with the quarterly performance of our operations in the US, and the South, Central America and Caribbean and Asia regions. In the case of the US, we were EBITDA-profitable again for the first time since 2009. In addition, we had record-high cement volumes in Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua and the Philippines.’
Mr González continued: ‘Throughout 2012, we took decisive steps to improve our debt maturity profile and strengthen our capital structure. We have now addressed all our required amortizations under the new Facilities Agreement until February 2017. Today, we are not only in a better shape financially, but we are also much more agile and flexible operationally.’
