Mexico's Cemex SAB de CV (NYSE:CX)
completed its $1.7 billion sale of Australian assets to Holcim Ltd. in what it called a milestone in its efforts to "regain financial flexibility." Selling for about half of what it paid, the building materials giant has done quite a bit of restructuring to deal with the billions of debt it took on when acquiring Australia's Rinker Ltd. in 2007 for about $16 billion.
Rinker gave Cemex great U.S. exposure, but when the housing market collapsed, Cemex was left with debt and regret. So the company, which built itself up with about 25 acquisitions in the mid- to late-90s, had to start
divesting and cutting costs. Since March 2008, it has sold operations in the Canary Islands, its 90% stake in telecom company Axtel SAB de CV and other assets for hundreds of millions of dollars.
And it's in better shape these days even though its sale of its Austrian and Hungarian operations to Strabag SE for $485 million fell through in July. Cemex just
completed a stock offering worth about $1.8 billion and
refinanced $15 billion -- mostly bank debt -- extending maturities through February 2014.
Reuters
says many investors see shares in Cemex climbing over the next few months as much of the uncertainty hanging over the company has eased with the refinancing deal and the share sale. Cemex shares were trading around $12.50 before market close, way up from the $4 around November but well below the highs of $20 to $30 it enjoyed before the crisis. -
Baz Hiralal
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