Vicat S.A.

Vicat has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Cemex's ready-mix concrete and aggregates operations in South-Eastern France. The proposed transaction would involve the acquisition of the subsidiaries Cemex Granulats Rhône Méditerranée, Cemex Béton Rhône Alpes and Cemex Béton Sud Est, which operate a network of 48 ready-mix concrete plants, 9 aggregates quarries, related services and certain interests in joint ventures across the Rhône Valley and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, notably along the Mediterranean corridor from Marseille to Nice. Vicat said the deal is highly complementary to its existing footprint and would generate industrial, commercial and logistics synergies, particularly with its cement business, while accelerating deployment of lower-carbon solutions. A preliminary Memorandum of Understanding provides for consultation with employee representative bodies, with completion expected before December 31, 2026, subject to prior approval by the competent competition authority under applicable merger control regulations. Separately, Vicat said that after reducing its financial leverage from 2.8x at year-end 2022 to 1.5x at year-end 2025, it has set a new financial leverage target of between 1.3x and 1.5x for the 2026-2027 period.

Vicat SA upgraded its full-year 2026 guidance to 7% to 9% like-for-like growth in both sales and EBITDA following a first half in which group sales rose 10.8% on a like-for-like basis to 2.36 billion euros and EBITDA increased 13.6% like-for-like to 367 million euros. Net income attributable to the group climbed 14.7% on a reported basis to 117 million euros, with diluted earnings per share up 14.5% to 2.6 euros. Organic revenue growth was strongest in Asia-Mediterranean at 27.7% and Africa at 26.3%, while Europe edged up 0.9% and the Americas grew 7%. On a like-for-like basis, EBITDA in Africa was a major driver with a 36 million euro contribution, Asia-Mediterranean rose 13.8%, the Americas were stable, and Europe declined 1.3%. The company highlighted an outstanding 41.7% EBITDA margin in Egypt and a 23 million euro increase in Senegal cement EBITDA to 32 million euros, aided by the ramp-up of Kiln 6. Net debt stood at 1.3 billion euros with a leverage ratio of 1.65 times, and free cash flow was a negative 36 million euros in the first half due to working capital outflows from strong revenue growth and seasonality.