Loma Negra sees net profit advance 35% in 2019

Argentina’s Loma Negra has reported a 5.5 per cent YoY decline in revenue to ARS38.95bn (US$660m) for the full-year 2019 period, compared with ARS41.24bn in the previous year. However, net profit surged 34.8 per cent YoY to ARS4.04bn from ARS3bn. Adjusted EBITDA also climbed 2.3 per cent YoY to reach ARS11.21bn.

The company’s sales volumes of cement, masonry and lime fell 9.7 per cent overall to 6.04Mt in 2019. Argentina contributed 5.47Mt (-10.6 per cent YoY), while Paraguay saw sales of 0.57Mt (+0.4 per cent YoY).

In the 4Q19 Loma Negra announced a 15 per cent decrease in revenue to ARS9.07bn against ARS10.67bn in the year-ago period. Net profit slipped 42.2 per cent to ARS1.13bn from ARS1.95bn. These results were  attributed to the deepening economic and financial crisis in Argentina during the quarter.

"In this context, Argentina’s business suffered more than previously expected, however, thanks to the determination to carry out cost-control initiatives oriented towards streamlining our production footprint, we were able to thrive and present results that we can feel proud of. When excluding the non-recurrent costs relative to these initiatives, adjusted EBITDA would have reached US$209m with margins expanding 378 basis points to 31.6 per cent," said Sergio Faifman, CEO.

The company’s 2.7Mta expansion of its L’Amalí plant is also on schedule to complete in mid-2020.