Holcim first-half results

Group net income rises, net financial debt decreases and Leadership Journey remains on track

HOLCIM reported a 5.1% decrease in net sales to CHF9.6 billion for the six months ended 30 June 2013, while operating EBITDA fell 3.4% to CHF1.8 billion over the same period. Likewise, consolidated operating profit fell by 3.3% to CHF1 billion during the first half, although Group net income increased by 23.8% to CHF 760 million.

The company’s net financial debt was down by CHF1.2 billion to CHF 11.0 billion, compared to the same period of the previous year, while gearing decreased from 62.6% to 57.1%.

Holcim say that although construction activities have slowed visibly in a number of markets since the Holcim Leadership Journey was launched, the programme is on track. Thanks mainly to progress on the cost front, it contributed CHF376 million to consolidated operating profit in the first half of 2013, with CHF47 million stemming from the Customer Excellence stream.

Looking ahead to the rest of this year, Holcim anticipate an increase in sales of cement but do not expect to reach the previous year’s levels in the aggregates and ready-mix concrete businesses.

While Group regions Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to witness higher cement sales volumes, Holcim say they are somewhat less optimistic with regard to Europe and Africa Middle East. In North America, cement sales are expected to reach similar levels to the previous year.