MEXICO CITY- Mexican building supplies giant Cemex SAB says it lost $146 million in the fourth quarter, compared to a loss of US$574 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. Monterrey-based Cemex, which is a 20 per cent shareholder in Trinidad Cement Ltd, says in an earnings report that sales increased by 6 per cent to US$3.7 billion for the fourth quarter, compared to US$3.49 billion in the same period of 2010. It says the infrastructure and residential sectors were the main drivers of demand in most of the company's markets. The company said yesterday sales rose eight per cent for the year as a whole, to US$15.1 billion thanks to increased sales in Northern Europe, South and Central America, the Caribbean region and the United States.
It says sales in Mexico decreased nine per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011 to US$818 million.
At the end of 2011, Cemex had consolidated funded net debt of US$15.47 billion at the end of 2011, according to a report on the Dow Jones Newswire yesterday. The report said that Cemex, the largest building supplies company in the world, needs to reduce its debt by an additional US$800 million, to reach US$14.70 billion, by the end of this year in order to remain in compliance with financial covenants.
It doesn't have any debt maturities due until December 2013. Fernando Gonzalez, Cemex's executive vice president of finance and administration, told analysts during a conference call that the company plans to continue chipping away at its debt load this year via US$500 million in asset sales-mostly real estate-by applying free cash flow and through proceeds from its agreement with the Venezuelan government. Cemex has US$200 million in bonds left from the US$600 million in cash and instruments it received in December from Venezuela for assets seized there.
