The cement factories Moldocim Bicaz, Casial Deva and Romcif, held by the German HeidelbergCement Group, together with the division co-ordinating the operations of the three, Carpatcement, have merged by absorption. The newly created entity is called Carpatcement Holding.
The merger of the four companies is "a natural stage of HeidelbergCement's development strategy in Romania," the company officials say.
The number of management levels will therefore be cut, and the planning and investment processes will improve. The benefits include the proper allocation of funds and the more efficient use of technical, logistic and human resources.
Carpatcement Holding took over the assets of the companies absorbed, so that its share capital now stands at more than 10,221 billion ROL (some 249 million euros) divided into 102.2 million shares whose par value reaches 100,000 ROL.
The majority shareholder of the newly formed company is Heidelberg Cement Central Europe East Holding BV, which owns 65.66 percent. HeidelbergCement Romania BV's interest stands at 33.21%, while the minority shareholders control only 1.13% of the total shares.
CarpatCement Romania expects turnover to grow by 10% compared with last year, when it amounted to 118 million euros.
The German group accounts for approximately 35% of the cement market, according to the latest data available, competing with the French Lafarge Group (34%) and the Swiss at Holcim (31%). The cement market in 2003 was in excess of 4.7 million tonnes, which means sales should have reached 235 - 244 million euros.
HeidelbergCement came to Romania in 1998 and has been running cement, concrete and aggregate operations since then.
HeidelbergCement operates in 50 countries and employs 37,000 people. Its turnover amounted to 6.3 billion euros last year.
Heidelberg expects to experience a rebound in 2004, betting on the renewed growth of the German construction supplies industry, after a time of particularly fierce competition and a slump in prices.
alexandru.cerchez@zf.ro
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