Company announces highest quarterly EBITDA, EBITDA margin and free cash flow since 2016
CEMEX have announced strong results for the third quarter of 2020 with all regions showing increasing profitability. In the three months to 30 September, EBITDA not only recovered from COVID-19 disruptions of the prior quarter but saw double-digit growth on a year-over-year basis.
Net sales increased 3% on a like-for-like basis to US$3.4 billion, whilst EBITDA for the quarter rose 15% to US$728 million, compared with the same period in 2019, and EBITDA margin increased by 1.8 percentage points to 21.2%. Free cash flow increased by 58% to US$458 million.
Commenting on the third-quarter results, Fernando A. González, chief executive officer of CEMEX, said: ‘We are pleased with our performance in the third quarter, in which all regions participated in earnings recovery. Indeed, during the quarter, we experienced EBITDA recovery from the second-quarter decline, due to COVID-19, as well as strong year-over-year growth.’
In Mexico, CEMEX’s net sales increased 14% on a like-for-like basis, to US$723 million, whilst operating EBITDA, on a like-for-like basis, increased 16% to US$246 million in the quarter, versus the same period of the previous year.
Operations in the US reported net sales of US$1.0 billion, an increase of 1% from the same period in 2019, whilst operating EBITDA increased by 7% to US$199 million compared with the same quarter of 2019.
In CEMEX’s Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia region, net sales increased by 2% on a like-for-like basis, compared with the same period of the previous year, reaching US$1.2 billion. Operating EBITDA was US$220 million for the quarter, 8% higher than the same period last year on a like-for-like basis.
The company’s operations in South and Central America and the Caribbean region reported net sales of US$395 million, an increase of 1% on a like-for-like basis over the same period of 2019, whilst operating EBITDA increased by 31% on a like-for-like basis to US$109 million in the third quarter of 2020, in contrast to the same quarter of 2019.
