Cimpor buys Cecime
Europe`s seventh-largest cement maker, Cimpor-Cimentos de Portugal, has acquired 90 per cent in local cement importer Cecime, overtaking another bidder for the purchase, rival company Secil, it was reported on October 7, 2003. The stake in the cement importer was sold by construction firms Mota-Engil, Sopol, Somague, OPCA and individual Filipe Soares Franco for 5.0 mln euro (US$5.9m), according to data of Portuguese business daily Diario Economico. Cimpor declined to comment on the price of the operation. The target of Cimpor will reportedly be to focus Cecime on exports of cement to the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores Islands from the continent. When founded in 2002, Cecime planned to import nearly 400,000 tonnes of cement a year, an amount that accounts for 10 per cent of Lisbon and the surrounding areas. Cement importers accounted for 13 per cent of the 9.8Mt of cement sold in Portugal. Last year Cecime handled around 100,000t of imports, bought mainly from suppliers in Turkey. Published under Cement News
