At a meeting on July 29 chaired by Yves René Nanot, the Board of Directors of Ciments Français (Italcementi Group), examined and approved the consolidated accounts as of June 30, 2010.
During the first six months of 2010, Group sales volumes dropped in cement & clinker and aggregates but increased slightly in ready mix concrete.
After a first quarter characterized by a significant decline in sales volumes with particularly bad weather conditions, the second quarter of 2010 saw an increase in sales volumes in all business segments compared with the second quarter of 2009 (in particular +3.6% for cement & clinker activities).
Over the six-month period as a whole, the Group managed to almost entirely make up for the decrease in the first quarter with sales volumes amounting to 23.1 million tonnes in cement & clinker (-0.3%), 19.2 million tonnes in aggregates (-4.0%) and 5.7 million m3 in ready mix concrete (+1.8%). Cement & clinker sales volumes improved in all emerging countries, with the sole exception of Bulgaria; they were down in all the industrialized countries and more particularly in Spain. In ready mix concrete, sales volumes increased significantly specially in Turkey, Thailand and Kuwait.
The minor changes in volumes came along with a downward trend in prices in some difficult markets in Q2 as well as in Q1, in particular in India, Bulgaria, the United Sates and Turkey; in the other emerging countries, the price trend remained globally positive especially in Kazakhstan, Egypt and Morocco.
Group H1 consolidated revenues amounted to 2,132.8 million euros, down 1.9% (-3.1% at comparable exchange rate and consolidation scope) on H1 2009. The increase in the revenues of all the emerging countries (except Bulgaria and India) almost completely made up for the decline in North America and Western Europe.
Recurring EBITDA for H1 totaled 437.5 million euros (-5.3%), of which 297.4 million euros in Q2 (+9.4%), i.e. a margin on revenues of 24.7% (+1.0%) for the quarter following operating efforts and the sale of CO2 emission rights for 20.2 million euros. EBIT amounted to 252.9 million euros in H1 (-4.5%).
After net finance costs of 32.6 million euros down 22.9% on H1 2009, the share of results from associates and a tax expense of 61.7 million euros (-0.4%), net consolidated Group profit amounted to 166.9 million euros, up 0.6%. The share of profit attributable to equity owners of the parent totaled 103.1 million euros (-9.3%), while the share attributable to minorities (Egypt, Morocco and Thailand) amounted to 63.8 million euros (+22.2%).
Total Group investments in industrial and financial fixed assets over the first six months of 2010 added up to 219.0 million euros as against 327.2 million euros in H1 2009.
The optimization of working capital requirements contributed to keep a similar indebtedness level to that at the end of 2009: net financial debt as of June 30, 2010 amounted to 1,589.4 million euros as against 1,562.3 million euros as of December 31, 2009.
After payment by Ciments Français SA of 108.7 million euros in dividends, total equity amounted to 4,327.6 million euros compared to 3,896.5 million euros at the end of December 2009. The debt to equity ratio (net financial debt/total equity) was 36.7% as against 40.1% as of December 31, 2009.
OUTLOOK
The improvement in volumes in Q2 should continue in H2 with an ongoing pressure on sales prices.
With the pursuit of the efforts towards productivity started since the end of 2008, H2 2010 operating results should be comparable to those of 2009.
The results for the first six-month period of 2010 of Italcementi and Ciments Français will be illustrated during a Conference Call on Friday 30 July 2010 at 3:30 p.m. The presentation will be broadcast in web streaming on the italcementigroup.com and cimfra.com websites.