CX - Cemex swings to surprise Q4 loss on impairment charges

Cemex ( NYSE: CX ) -3.6% in early trading Monday after posting an unexpected Q4 loss due mostly to large impairments, while higher prices helped revenues rise 8% Y/Y to $3.87B.

Cemex ( CX ) swung to a Q4 net loss of $99.1M, or $0.12/ADS, which includes $442M of impairments on goodwill and fixed assets due to higher global inflation and rising interest rates, from a profit of $194.8M in the year-earlier.

Q4 EBITDA slipped 2% Y/Y to $630.4M, with operating EBITDA margin dropped to 16.3% from 18% in the year-earlier quarter.

Q4 cement sales volume fell 6% to 15.6M metric tons, while ready-mix concrete and aggregates volumes each fell 3%, to 12.1M cubic meters and 33.7M metric tons, respectively.

Analysts had expected Q4 profit to improve after the company hiked product prices by double-digit percentage figures.

For the full year, net profit jumped 14% Y/Y to $858M while EBITDA dropped 6% to $2.7B and revenues rose 8% to $15.6B.

For FY 2023, Cemex ( CX ) sees EBITDA growth in low single digits, with low single digit declines in cement and ready mix concrete volume; capital spending for this year is projected at $1.25B, including $850M for maintenance.

Cemex ( CX ) shares have gained 21% YTD but fell 7.5% during the past year .

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