Rabat – Hakan Gürdal has been appointed managing director of Ciments du Maroc (Cimar), succeeding Nabil Francis who was in office till July 2016, the subsidiary of HeidelbergCement Group announced Thursday.
The new director of Turkish descent officially took office on September 21, said the cement group. Gürdal graduated from the Technical University of Yildiz in Istanbul in Mechanical Engineering and from the University of Istanbul (MBA in International Management) and joined Çanakkale Çimento in 1992.
He was appointed member of the Board of Directors of HeidelbergCement in February 2016, and since April 2016 he is been in charge of the Africa-Eastern Mediterranean region. Additionally, he has been responsible for Purchasing since January 2017.
Cimar posted a net profit up by 19.8 percent to MAD 603 million in the first six months of 2017.
The half-year result was positively impacted by a significant increase in export volumes compared to 2016, the company said in a financial communication published on the website of the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
The volume of Cimar’s cement sales its subsidiary Indusaha reflect the year-on-year decline of sales in the month of Ramadan, down 6.9 percent from June 30, 2016, with national cement consumption falling by 9.2 percent, noted the statement.
Operating revenues therefore amounted to MAD 2.02 billion, an increase of 1.1 percent compared to the first half of 2016, while EBITDA (gross operating income) remains stable at MAD 929 million.
The company explained that the tax reduction over the past six months compared to the same period in 2016, is justified by the fiscal deficit recorded in 2016, which is itself induced by the depreciation of assets held in Egypt. As a result, the half-year net profit rose significantly, it added.
For its part, the self-financing capacity (CA) improved by 2.2 percent to MAD 781 million.
The cement manufacturer also noted that the Board of Directors met on September 19, 2017 in Casablanca to oversee the progress of the plans for the acquisition of a crushing center in Dakhla as well as that of the Nador Crushing Center project.The Board also reviewed the ongoing external growth strategy studies.
