Ex-Holcim CEO expands his stake in cementmaker past 20%
Oct, 11 2011
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 (Zurich, Switzerland) -- Thomas Schmidheiny, former chief executive of Holcim Ltd, has increased his holdings in the world's largest cement maker by sales past 20%.
Schmidheiny's investment vehicle, Schweizerische Cement Industrie AG, has increased its holding from 18.2% to 20.1% of the voting rights at Holcim, the Swiss company said late Thursday.
Joerg Denzler, spokesman for Schmidheiny, said: "Mr Schmidheiny had a major stake, but after the last increase of capital this went down to about 18%. He always said that he wanted to increase his stake to over 20%, and that is what he has done."
Schmidheiny, whose family established the Holcim predecessor company Holderbank Financiere Glaris Ltd, was CEO at the Zurich company from 1978 to 2001 and chairman from 1984 to 2003.
"When he left the company he always said he would remain an important shareholder," said Denzler.
The move follows Eurocement, Russia's largest cement holder, taking its own stake past 10% in September.
Thierry Sauvaire, chief executive of Eurocement Holding AG - the company's investment arm, said: "This is a financial investment. We are long-term investors and wanted to take advantage of the low price." Sauvaire told Dow Jones Newswires that Eurocement had added 3.5% to its stake over the summer.
He said it was unlikely Eurocement wanted to launch a takeover of Holcim.
"Holcim are doing the same things we do and we understand the business, and we want to diversify ourselves."
A spokesman for Holcim declined to comment on takeover speculation, but said the share purchases were welcome because they showed confidence in the company.
Analyst Serge Rotzer at Bank Vontobel in Zurich said Holcim shares were now vulnerable after the recent out performance. The stock has risen 7.8% since Monday, outpacing the Swiss Market Index which has risen 1.5%.
He said: "The focus will now shift back to fundamentals which have not improved in the last two weeks."
At 10.05GMT, Holcim shares were down 3.1% at CHF52.55, while the SMI traded down 0.4%.
By John Revill |
