Italian cement company Italcementi is unlikely to make acquisitions this year but if opportunities arise from the crisis the group is ready to seize them, company executives said on Friday.

"It will be difficult this year" to make acquisitions, the company’s chief executive Carlo Pesenti said on the sidelines of the annual shareholders meeting.

But the family-owned company’s chairman Giampiero Pesenti said "should there be opportunities I don’t see why we shouldn’t seize them," acknowledging nothing was "on sight at the moment".

Giampiero Pesenti said Italcementi was ready to use its treasury shares to help fund any possible acquisition.

Asked whether Italcementi will increase its 12.5 per cent stake in Syria’s Badia Cement JSC, the CEO said "we have the possibility of doubling (the stake) in the future, but we’ll always remain minority shareholders".

Source: Reuters
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