In its first earnings report since the merger of Lafarge and Holcim was concluded in mid-year, it said EBITDA, a measure of operating profit, fell to 1.3 billion francs ($1.3 billion) in the third quarter on a comparable basis, and to 3.6 billion Swiss francs in the nine months to
September, a drop of 18.8 percent.
The nine-month results were “impacted by merger and restructuring costs, adverse foreign exchange, an economic slowdown in China and Brazil as well as softness in France and in Switzerland,” the company said in a statement.
Its performance held up well in the United States, Asia, Oceania and Latin America, it said.
The company confirmed its synergy targets from the merger, and said it was targeting a dividend of 1.50 Swiss francs per share in 2015, up from 1.30 last year.
Analysts said this pushed up the LafargeHolcim share price up by more than three percent in early Zurich trading, to 55.3 francs.
HOLCIM
LafargeHolcim profits shrink after merger
Swiss-based LafargeHolcim said on Wednesday that its profits collapsed as the cost of building the world's biggest cement company took its toll.
LAFARGE
Yazidi women want to join court case against French cement giant
Yazidi women who survived rape and slavery at the hands of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria have applied to join in a court case against French multinational cement giant Lafarge, accused of paying millions to jihadist groups including Islamic State (Isis), the women's lawyers said Friday.
They have made an application to be “civil parties” in a criminal case brought in France against Lafarge and several of its executives for complicity in crimes against humanity and financing a terrorist organisation, the lawyers said in a statement.
Lafarge allegedly made multi-million dollar payments to Islamic State in order to continue operations at one of its cement plants in northern Syria in 2013.
This allegedly included payments by Lafarge for large amounts of oil, one of Isis’ main revenue sources.
French investigative judges indicted Lafarge in June 2018, and eight of its executives were charged in 2017.
Amal Clooney, wife of actor George Clooney, and one of the counsels for the victims, said the case would allow Yazidi women “to have their voices heard in a court of law”.
“Since August 2014, Isis has targeted Yazidis in Iraq and Syria through forced displacement, executions, kidnappings, and the sexual enslavement of women and girls,” she said.
This case “provides an opportunity to establish that Isis, and all those who assisted them, will be held to account for their crimes, and that victims will be awarded just compensation.
“And it sends an important message to corporations that are complicit in the commission of international crimes that they will face legal consequences for their actions,” she added.
Lafarge is suspected of paying nearly 13 million euros to Isis and other militant groups to keep the Jalabiya plant running long after other French companies had pulled out of Syria.
The payments by the Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) subsidiary were considered a “tax” in exchange for which militants allowed free movement of the company's staff and goods inside the warzone, according to investigators.
A source close to the probe said investigators also suspect that Lafarge sold cement to Isis.
READ ALSO: French firm Lafarge charged with complicity in crimes against humanity in Syria
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