The best year for the two groups, which entered Romania in 1997, was 2008, when both Holcim Romania and Lafarge Ciment (the main company through which the French group is present in Romania) reached revenue of around EUR370 million each.
While, in the same year, Lafarge had a net profit of EUR164 million, namely a 44% margin, Holcim hit a profit of EUR30 million, namely an 8% margin. The Swiss company had a higher profit in 2006, when amid revenue of EUR220 million it reported a margin of almost 23%. Holcim in 2012 also posted the first loss in the analyzed period, of around EUR8.5 million.
In 2002-2012 period, Lafarge Ciment registered net cumulated profits of about EUR719 million, while Holcim Romania had net total profits of EUR211 million in the same interval, according to ZF calculations.
For Holcim Romania, ZF took into account the 2004-2012 period for which the Finance Ministry holds data, while in the case of Lafarge Ciment it took into account the 2002-2012 period.
The two groups will have to sell 43% of Romanian production capacities to get the merger ok from competition authorities, according to a Deutsche Bank report. The two players own four cement plants in Romania with total installed capacities of 11 million tons per annum and reached total revenue of above EUR400 million in 2012, covering over 60% of the market.
Lafarge officials previously told ZF the newly-forged entity, LafargeHolcim, would not shut down plants, but will sell some production capacities if competition authorities ask for asset sales. Also, they specified there would not be any layoffs. The two companies have between 1,500 and 2,000 employees together on the Romanian market, according to ZF data.
The merger between the two companies, which would create a group with cumulated sales of above EUR30 billion worldwide, is the largest deal in the building materials industry in the past two decades.
The two companies did not answer ZF’s request for information on the position the domestic operations hold in the two groups.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)