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Executive VP explains FLS Industries' refocus within building materials division Full article published: 04/14/2003     BJARNE MOLTKE HANSEN is Executive Vice President, FLS Industries A/S


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TWST: Can we start with an introduction to FLS Industries (FLBCb.CO) including a brief historical sketch and then bring us up to date with how the company is positioned today?

Mr. Moltke Hansen: FLS Building Materials is a part of the FLS Group, one of the biggest industrial groups in Denmark that has a turnover of 2.5b Euros. In the second half of 2002, we announced a strategy to focus on building materials and complete production lines and equipment for the cement and minerals industries, with the activities outside these business areas either being sold through partnerships or just simply sold. You might say we are in some ways returning to our roots, to when it all started 120 years ago with the equipment for cement plants and production of cement. In terms of the Building Materials business, which I am the CEO of, we have 100 percent ownership of our core building materials companies. We produce grey and white cement, ready-mix concrete, fibre-cement products, and specialty mortars. We also had associated company called Secil, which we divested just recently. Our history in building material begins with the production of cement in Denmark more than 100 years ago, and the rest of our building materials products -- ready-mix concrete and in fiber-cement -- began in the 20s. We split the cement product into two areas, grey and white cement, but as a company we have really transformed ourselves to focus very much on white cement. The grey cement market is a very large market with an annual capacity of 1.7b tons. You could say that it is a local, regional, and a global grey cement business. The white cement business, however, while also global, is very much a niche market and we are now the number one player here, having doubled our capacity over recent years. As far as ready-mix concrete, that is very much a local business because you can't transport the concrete over long distances. Certainly, ready-mix concrete it is also a global business with a total of 1.5b cubic meters annually, but you really must have a local presence to operate effectively; that is key. The fiber-cement business is also a big global business with a total market currently of 11m tons, but for us it is a [pure] European business. And finally, we have the specialty mortar business, which is the newest business we established 20 years ago. It is a relatively small but quite interesting business for us. Therefore, the four building materials legs we stand on are cement, ready-mix concrete, fiber-cement, and specialty mortars.

TWST: What was the reason for focusing more strongly on white cement? Can you touch on the dynamics and attraction to that particular market?

Mr. Moltke Hansen: In a broader sense, we have clear targets now for all of our four businesses and we have been much more focused throughout than we have had been over the last few years. We made the decision a couple of years ago to expand our white cement business. As a result, we acquired a plant in Malaysia two years ago and have since boosted that plant four times and made Malaysia the center for our white cement expansion in Asia. We have also just built a new white cement plant in Egypt, thereby making Egypt our center for white cement in the Middle East. We also have a large white cement plant in Denmark, which we are currently converting to handle greater capacity. And then we have a joint venture in the States, which includes two white cement plants. So in total, we have four global centers for white cement and they will be the foundation for all our future development.

TWST: When you put them all together, are the businesses operating according to your expectations or are there some fine-tuning still to be done?

Mr. Moltke Hansen: We are not completely satisfied with the financial results for last year. We were able to make a return on capital employed of 8% total in building materials, and an EBT ratio of also about 8%, which was a nice development from 2001. But you need to only compare apples-to-apples and look at the core businesses, because some of the concrete products activities that we sold off are still included in the figures from last year. So, in terms of the future, we are confident we will be able to meet our goals. In our core businesses -- ready-mix concrete, cement activities, fiber cement activities and mortar -- our return on capital employed was 10% last year and our earnings before tax ratio was 11%. Our goal, as we have said to the market, is 11% both in return on capital employed and earnings before tax to sales. We are quite close to the target we set for 2005.


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This interview is a small excerpt from a comprehensive interview published in The Wall Street Transcript on 04/14/03. For more information call (212) 952 7400. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.

Copyright 2003, Wall Street Transcript Corp.

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