Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the La Parcel Fin Media Conference Call on Q3 2020 Results. I'm Andre, the Polish call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q and A session. The conference must not be recorded for publication of the webcast.
At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Eva Meringue, Head of Legal Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Thank you, Andre. Good morning, everyone, from our side to La Farshalcum's Q3 trading update media call. Let me now hand over the words to our CEO, Jan Janes, for some introductory remarks. And afterwards, we're happy to take your questions.
Thank you.
Jan, please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our media call for the Q3 results. Obviously, very exciting news. We are clearly above expectations in all KPIs and I'm personally very proud how our global team has handled the pandemic and what excellent results we have achieved here in Q3 2020. When you look at the results, you can see that our demand is very, very resilient.
We are basically back to last year levels on sales. At the same time, our action plan, health, cost and cash has delivered results above target and all financial KPIs ahead of last year, starting with the EBIT, which is up 10%, but also all the other figures are above last year and we're very happy to have achieved this. If you look a bit in the where the good results are coming from, You will notice that Latin America has been our biggest contributor where sales was cement volumes up 6%, which in the last 3 months. Also we are in Asia at 3% above last year, while in Middle East, Africa and Europe, we are close to last year's level. So really very strong result.
It shows how resilient the demand is for our products. It's also interesting to see that our branded products, which are sold in distribution channels and in the retail networks are in very high demand. We have, for example, our branded bag cements are up 5% in volumes compared to last year. This is really fantastic to see how well we are positioned here to continue business successfully. I think now going forward, we are, I would say, quite optimistic.
We have a very strong balance sheet, the strongest in the industry, ready to for any opportunity which might come up. I think our decentralized and empowered business model works excellent in these times and our footprint, especially in distribution, retail and with the branded products is will continue to give us good demand for our products and services. At the same time, we expect then latest next year that all the stimulus programs will kick in. We have plenty of announcements from the governments, from China to Australia, from India to the U. S, Latin America and also many European countries.
So I'm here quite confident going here into the Q4 of the year and also into next year. I think with this, I'm sure you have plenty of questions and comments. I'm very happy to pass over to you.
We will now begin the question and answer session. First question comes from the line of Leonard Kenschetta from Bloomberg. Please go ahead.
Hello, good morning. You said last week that you'd like to acquire a bigger business for your Solutions and Products segment. Is there anything concrete on the horizon yet?
Nothing we can announce. We can just say we are ready. We have looked into a sizable business last year, which did materialize for a few reasons and we are ready to we are ready if the opportunity comes up.
Thank you.
Next question comes from the line of Johannes Riefeld from FAZ. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Looking at the elections in the United States next week, from a business point of view, what would you expect from a winner that could be Joe Biden?
Well, I think in any event, I think in the U. S, we will see a strong stimulus programs for next year, which will focus on infrastructure and construction. And I think this is true for both candidates. So whatever whoever wins the race for us, I think will be a very positive market in the U. S.
Next year.
And what about the taxes? Biden said that he would decrease taxes once he's in office?
We have to see that. I think it's a very intense race. What we all see and follow at the moment and the question is later than what program they really will define in details. And also I think the question is then in the parliamentary houses, how the majority lies. So but I'm confident.
I think they have to the U. S. Especially, they have to do everything to support the economy and this will be good for Lafarge wholesale.
When Jean came in office, I remember that you and many of your colleagues were very confident that his announcement also including infrastructure programs would give you a push. And did these help, in fact, materialize if you look back to the 2 part 4 years?
Yes, we have a very good market. You see from our numbers, North America is our has been our highest return regions in recent years. So has been very good for us. Infrastructure, they were programs, they passed the highway bill executed on it. So we had a good situation and I think this will now continue.
Okay,
thanks.
The next question comes from the line of Oliver Hith from Reuters. Please go ahead. Good morning. I wonder switching this voting on the consent plan for the next month. So what what would this mean if this went through for your first quarter?
And if you went through, would you consider moving up the short term?
No. I think I mean, basically, that's I think that that's one of the initiative is well understood. And the initiative itself is a bit, I think, a sensitive one, certainly for companies, but I don't think you should always go black and white with those things. We are looking for the result. And then of course, we are always respectful whatever comes out.
We will organize us accordingly, but I think there is no point to make any black white statements at this point.
But you're opposing it, right?
I think again, I think the reasons for the campaign is very good and it's also our policy as a company to be proper in every country we operate. And sometimes there are challenges which we address then. And I think how the initiative is phrased at the moment, it's not positive. It will not have a positive outcome or positive contribution to those countries. So that's why I'm not excited about the campaign.
But the basis of this is I can fully understand and support.
Do you feel legal measures against tolls in Switzerland if this gets approved?
No. Again, I think our policy is we want to be a proper company everywhere we operate. If we have issues, summer, we address it. And so we have nothing to hide. We are fully transparent.
You always have to imagine, we are a company of 72,000 employees globally. So basically, 70,000 families are with LafargeHolcim and they want to work for a business which is proper, which is clean and not do any tricks or something. This is why I have zero tolerance when it comes to compliance and our operating standards have to be the same everywhere. So this is how we see things.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Bernard Signorell from the Invest Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Good morning to Gerardo. First of all, congratulations to the great results. I have totally other question concerning the Cuba issue a couple of weeks ago, we've completed the news basis. An old story former landlord will start to sue, not for the property. Can you say anything to this issue?
Was it Fried?
Yes. Thank you. So the Q4 topic, it's now a court case obviously in Florida at the moment. We believe the claim is groundless as it is. We have not taken land from anyone.
And it's a very actually limited case and we don't believe it has any merits.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question is a follow-up question from Lennard Jan Schafer from Bloomberg.
I was also wondering if you expect that LafargeHolcen will be fine for the alleged violation of the U. S. Trade embargo on Cuba related to that joint venture? Could you give a
bit color? We have not violated any U. S. Embargo or any U. S.
Sanctions. This is a private claim of people who believe they have a claim. So this has nothing to do with U. S. Embargo or something that's
So there's no alleged violation of the U. S. Trade environment on Cuba?
No, no. We never violated that.
Okay. Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time.
Good. Any more questions or comments, please? Otherwise, again, thank you for joining us on a Friday morning and very happy we have some good news in this pandemic and happy writing to all of you and I look forward to see you very soon on video or maybe even live. Yes, thank you very much and have a good Friday.
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