About

Cementir Holding is a leading producer of cement and mixed-concrete, and is a holding company with subsidiaries manufacturing cement and concrete primarily in Turkey and Denmark. In 2018 the company divested its Italian operations and subsequently all activities are located exclusively out of Italy, a move the legal team has been involved in. ‘We are constantly involved in all aspects of an increasing internationalisation process involving our Group in its entirety’, says group general counsel Claudio Criscuolo. The team has also been tasked with the latest step of the transfer of the corporate headquarters from Rome to Amsterdam, with the consequential conversion of the legal processes into that of an entity incorporated in accordance with Dutch law. This transfer will be implemented through a complex procedure whereby the entire legal form of the company will be converted from the Italian “società per azioni” into a “naamloze vennootschap” governed by the laws of the Netherlands, under the name “Cementir Holding”, with the company’s articles of association amended accordingly. The legal department has provided a robust backbone sustaining the group in a period of great change, combined with the work put into M&A transactions managed in-house, the team has greatly contributed to facilitating this long-term internalisation project. ‘As a legal department, we have developed an expertise within our industry, particularly in the field of M&A deals, which is unique and makes us real business partners. We deliver what we promise and we do it very fast’, says Criscuolo. The legal team possesses an impressive track record in domestic and cross-border acquisitions, as a result of working together in parallel and gaining a relationship of trust with other parts of the business, something which has given them a competitive advantage over bigger competitors. Some of the legal team’s largest M&A transactions include the acquisition of a majority interest in Lehigh White Cement Company in 2018, a US based company, and national leader in the production and distribution of white cement. ‘Cementir Holding has thus further strengthened its leading position in the global white cement industry. Coupled with the parallel divestiture mentioned above, the acquisition of LWCC has determined a material shift of the centre of gravity of the entire Group and a change in its perception also by third parties’, says Criscuolo.