Mexico's Cemex Reports Lower Net Loss in 2014

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Mexican consortium Cemex, one of the world's leading cement producers, posted a controlling income net loss of $507 million last year, down 40 percent from its net loss of $843.1 billion in 2013.

In a securities filing Thursday, Cemex said its net sales totaled $15.7 billion last year, up 3 percent from the $15.2 billion it reported in 2013.

The company, meanwhile, said its operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or operating EBITDA, rose 4 percent in 2014 to $2.74 billion, compared to $2.64 billion the previous year.

In the fourth quarter, Cemex posted a net loss of $178 million, down 30 percent from October-December 2013, when its net loss amounted to $255 million.

Net sales totaled $3.84 billion between October and December, down 1 percent from the same period of 2013, while the company's operating EBITDA in the fourth quarter amounted to $701 million, a 9 percent increase from the same period of the previous year.

At the close of December, Cemex's total debt plus perpetual notes totaled $16.29 billion, a decrease of 7 percent from the $17.47 billion reported 12 months earlier.

Cemex CEO Fernando Gonzalez Olivieri said the company posted a lower net loss for the third straight year in 2014.

"We are pleased with the growth in volumes and local-currency prices for our products in most of our regions," he said, while also touting the strengthening of the company's credit profile.

"We continue to improve our debt maturity profile and interest expense through our debt reduction of close to $1.2 billion and our refinancing activities of approximately $5 billion during (2014)," Gonzalez added.

Cemex struggled to pay its debt after it acquired Australian cement maker Rinker for $15.3 billion in 2007 and the construction industry in the United States and Europe plunged into crisis in 2008.

Founded in 1906, Cemex's main competitors include France's Lafarge and Switzerland's Holcim, which announced merger plans last April. EFE

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