HeidelbergCement: sales and profit rise with price increases

(CercleFinance.com) - Germany's HeidelbergCement on Thursday reported a 17% rise in first-quarter sales and repeated its outlook for the full year, boosting its shares in Frankfurt.


The world's second-largest cement maker by capacity also said that it cut its net debt by 800 million euros from the end of the first quarter of 2018.

HeidelbergCement sales rose to 4.2 billion euros over the quarter, helped by price increases in Europe and Asia, as well as North America, it said in a statement.

Profit from current operations before depreciation and amortisation also grew significantly to 396 million euros, from 250 million euros one year ago, with price increases more than offseting the rise in costs.

Analysts at UBS said first-quarter performance was "solid," helped by weather, although warned that this good start of the year could be mitigated by energy headwinds that are ahead.

After these results, shares in HeidelbergCement were up 2.7% in Frankfurt, compared with a 0.7% decline on the German blue-chip DAX index.

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