Cementos Argos on Thursday said its net profit in the
first half of the year more than doubled compared with a year earlier,
thanks to the sale of coal assets.
Colombia’s largest cement company’s earnings in the first half of
the year were 297 billion Colombian pesos ($145.3 million), up from
COP130 billion over the same period in 2008, the company said in a
filing to the securities regulator Thursday.
Argos sold coal mines and export facilities to Brazilian mining
company Vale SA (VALE) for $300 million during the first half of the
year.
Cementos Argos’ operating income fell 3% to COP1.8 trillion from
COP1.87 trillion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization, a key indicator of cash flow, rose 13% to COP333 billion.
Rupert Stebbings, analyst at the Medellin-based brokerage
Interbolsa, said the earnings were driven by lower costs and “a nice
operating performance especially in the Caribbean and Colombia.”
Cementos Argos operator Inversiones Argos said earlier Thursday
that the company’s first half net profit increased to COP254 billion in
the first half from COP103 billion a year earlier.
Cementos Argos and its subsidiaries have plants in the U.S., Panama, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. (Dow Jones)