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[August 2007]
Imerys Group First Half 2007 Consolidated Results
Highlights of Imerys Group first half consolidated results were as follows:
Imerys said that in H1 2007, its markets showed healthy overall trends driven by firm growth in emerging countries. In addition, the economic environment was marked by further depreciation of the US dollar against the euro and by the levelling out of energy prices, which had risen sharply in 2005 and 2006. The group's operating performance improved in that context.
A highlight of the period was the completion of acquisitions that enabled the group to keep up its development. Following the acquisition in April 2007 of UCM, a major producer of fused zirconium and magnesia, Imerys continued to strengthen its positions with operations in China, India and Argentina. The group had just announced two new operations: the acquisition of ACE, India's leading monolithic refractories producer and the takeover of Vatutinsky, a Ukrainian company specialising in the production of chamottes (calcined clay) for refractories.
CEO Gérard Buffière commented: “In the 1st half of 2007, the Group's operating performance improved. Trends were positive on most of our markets, allowing us to achieve +4.4% organic growth. However, the further depreciation of the US dollar against all other currencies, particularly the euro and the Brazilian real, limited our performance growth. On the other hand, we did benefit from stable energy prices.
“The period was marked by an acceleration of our development in high-growth zones through acquisitions in monolithic refractories and minerals for ceramics in India, refractory chamottes in Ukraine and minerals for filtration in Argentina, reflecting our determination to be a 'multimineral' and 'multi-application' world leader in industrial minerals processing. For the year as a whole, growth in our net income from current operations should be similar to the growth rate achieved for the 1st half, assuming comparable economic and monetary conditions.”
A world leader in adding value to minerals, Imerys is active in 45 countries through over 250 industrial and commercial sites. The group achieved €3.3 billion in sales in 2006. Imerys mines and processes minerals from reserves with rare qualities in order to develop solutions that improve its customers ' product performance and manufacturing efficiency.
www.imerys.com
ENDS