Therefore, the value of the local subsidiary exceeds one billion euros and is a multiple of 7.5 of the net profit of 2007, 132 million euros, and a multiple of 3 of the turnover of the same year, 324 million euros.
Lafarge Ciment posted 1.39 billion RON (380 million euros) in turnover last year, an increase of 28.9 percent compared with the previous year, as a result of the rise in prices and the increase in the volume of sales.
The company is the biggest producer of cement on the domestic market, with an installed production capacity of about 5.5 million tonnes in two factories in Medgidia and Hoghiz and of a grinding station in Targu Jiu
"This transaction had been provided for in the shareholder agreements signed by Lafarge and EBRD in 1998 and was negotiated and completed in the first part of 2008. Lafarge currently owns approximately 99 percent in Lafarge Ciment (Romania) SA, with the rest of the shares held by various individual shareholders," Phillipe Platon, chief financial officer of Lafarge Ciment told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
Lafarge went public with this information in its annual report revealed last week, where it announced it had taken over a minority stake in a subsidiary in Romania without providing further details.
Lafarge entered the Romanian market in 1997, when it took over the former national producer Romcim in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Lafarge did the same thing in Poland (where it bought back the stake of 23 percent in 2003) and in Russia (where it bought EBRD's interest for 105 million euros in 2008).
According to the "100 most valuable companies in Romania" yearbook put together by ZIARUL FINANCIAR, Lafarge Ciment was valued at about 815 million euros last year and was one of the top 25 companies in terms of value on the Romanian market.
EBRD's exit was done at one of the best times for the cement market in Romania, which witnessed 20-30 percent growth every year over the last three years.
Cement consumption reached a record high in 2008, approximately 600 kilograms per capita, which equals 13 million tonnes of cement, double the level in 2005, and exceeding the European average, which is about 550 kilograms per capita.
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