MEX­I­CO CITY - Mex­i­co's ce­ment gi­ant Ce­mex SAB de CV says the Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment has agreed to pay US$600 mil­lion for the 2008 takeover of the com­pa­ny's op­er­a­tions in Venezuela. The Mex­i­can com­pa­ny says the ne­go­ti­at­ed pay­ment will be US$240 mil­lion in cash and US$360 mil­lion in ne­go­tiable se­cu­ri­ties from the Venezue­lan state oil com­pa­ny, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA.

The com­pa­ny said in a state­ment yes­ter­day that all par­ties "are sat­is­fied with this res­o­lu­tion and hope to con­tin­ue pro­mot­ing the re­la­tion­ship be­tween Venezuela and Mex­i­co." In April 2008, Venezuela de­cid­ed to na­tion­alise the ce­ment in­dus­try, af­fect­ing Ce­mex, La­farge SA of France and Hol­cim Ltd of Switzer­land, the three gi­ants in the in­dus­try.

AP