Oct 30 (Reuters) - Lorenzo Zambrano, chief executive
officer at Mexico's Cemex, told Reuters on Friday he expects
the company's U.S. cement volumes to grow next year as the U.S.
housing market recovers.
Here are some facts about the company and its CEO. For an
interview with Zambrano, please click on: [nN30260976]
* Cemex (CMXCPO.MX) (CX.N) is the world's No.3 cement
company and generated net sales of $21.7 billion in 2008. Its
total assets were worth $45.4 billion last year, with
operations across more than 50 countries. The company produced
close to 96 million metric tonnes of cement in 2008.
* Monterrey-based Cemex opened its first plant in a poor
northern Mexican town in 1906 and for decades was a small
cement maker. Back in the mid-1980s, Zambrano, who Cemex
employees refer to simply as "El Ingeniero", or "The Engineer,"
took over the company with $300 million in annual revenues.
* Under Zambrano, 65, the company has bought more than 20
companies over the past two decades to build a business empire
stretching across five continents.
* Zambrano, a Stanford University graduate, is credited
with being one of the first businessmen in Latin America to
foresee globalization. He used Mexico's falling trade barriers
to enact his philosophy of "buy or be bought."
* Cemex became the top cement maker in the United States in
2007 after it made its biggest acquisition to date --
Australia's Rinker for $16 billion including debt, one of the
biggest ever purchases by an emerging markets company.
* The takeover dwarfed Cemex's takeover of Britain's RMC
Group for $5.8 billion in 2004, which at the time was the
largest purchase by a Mexican company.
* But the Rinker deal nearly proved to be Cemex's undoing.
Cemex bought Rinker with billions of dollars in short-term debt
just as the U.S. housing market crisis broke. As Cemex's sales
collapsed around the world last year, the company faced its
worst crisis in its century-long history and some investors
expected the company to default.
* Cemex won a reprieve in August after it convinced bankers
to refinance $15 billion in debt out until February 2014. But
the deal doubles Cemex's debt servicing costs and the company
was forced to sell its Australian assets to Swiss rival Holcim
Ltd (HOLN.VX) at a fire sale price of $1.7 billion this month
to help pay off debt.
* Investors are now looking for signs of a rebound in the
company's sales. Things are still bleak for the company, with
U.S. cement volumes set to fall 30 percent this year.
(Reporting by Robin Emmott in Monterrey; editing by Andre
Grenon)
