JEDDAH, 7 April 2005 — Arabian Cement Company signed a cooperation agreement with Italcementi Group, an Italian company on Tuesday evening at Jeddah Hilton Hotel marking a new transformation for cement companies in Saudi Arabia.
Carlo Pesenti, CEO of Italcementi Group, which is the fourth largest cement producing company in the world, attended the signing ceremony as also Georgiou Budou, chief financial officer of the company, and ACC’s Abdullah Al-Essa, vice chairman of the board of directors, and other board members. “This agreement represent a new leading step for cement companies in the Kingdom and a historical transformation for the Arabian Cement Company,” said Al-Essa on this occasion. “It is an important step that will result in the company’s expansion in the region, which is one of the goals of the company’s strategy,” he said. He pointed out that this agreement would not only benefit stockholders but also the nation’s economy.
Al-Essa announced that the two companies are seeking to invest in the cement industry in the Middle East and the first outcome of this cooperation is establishing a new cement plant in the Kingdom with the latest technology in the field. This plant comes in response to greater demand for cement in the Kingdom. Italcementi Group is a global cement producer with cement plants, quarries and batching units around the world comprising a production network in 15 countries. In recent years, the group has undertaken organizational and business development that has had improved its overall performance including a number of small/medium sized investments in emerging markets such as India, Egypt and Morocco.
The group believes that a slowdown in mature markets - Western Europe and North America - and a rebounding in emerging markets, which include countries in Asia and the Middle East, will occur. Its 2004 financial results showed a net income rise of 5.7 percent to 292 million euros.