Emerging Markets : Colombian Cement Maker Starts Level I Adr Program

 

 

Cementos Argos, the fifth-largest cement producer in Latin America, began trading its shares in the US over-the-counter market in the form of American depositary receipts. The Medellín, Colombia-based company makes white and gray cement, as well as lime and mortar. It has 11 cement plants in Colombia and 134 in the United States, where it is the sixth-largest concrete producer. Cementos Argos purchased US-based Southern Star Concrete and Concrete Express in 2005. A year later it bought Ready Mixed Concrete, which has an extensive network of concrete plants and mixing trucks in the Carolinas and southern Virginia.

Formerly known as Cementos del Caribe, Cementos Argos owns and manages cement plants in Panama, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Its Venezuelan cement plant was expropriated in 2007. The company exports cement and related products to 31 countries. Cementos Argos operates an extensive reforestation project in Colombia.

The Bank of New York Mellon is depositary for Cementos Argos’s Level I ADR program. Each ADR represents five common shares, which trade on the Bolsa de Valores in Colombia.

In other DR news, Turkey-based Coca-Cola Icecek appointed Citi as depositary for its global depositary receipt program. The company’s GDRs are listed on the London Stock Exchange, and its ordinary shares trade on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Coca-Cola Icecek distributes beverages in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Jordan and Kyrgyzstan.