Titan Cement moves to Wall Street with its main subsidiary

The Greek cement giant Titan has quietly grown into one of the best-performing Brussels shares thanks to its booming American subsidiary.

Titan Cement

is seeking a listing on Wall Street for its American subsidiary Titan America, according to a statement. The Greek cement giant with legal headquarters in Brussels aims to have investors subscribe to ‘a minority stake, in line with the typical percentages for American IPOs’. The listing should be completed in early 2025.

Titan America is the crown jewel of Titan Cement. According to the annual report, the American subsidiary accounted for almost 60 percent of the group turnover of 2.55 billion euros with 1.48 billion euros. The majority of the record operating profit of 540 million euros – 300 million – for the 2023 financial year is also provided by Titan America. In addition to the region around New York City, Titan America is mainly active in the rapidly growing southern American states, such as Florida and North Carolina. The catch-up in infrastructure investments in the US is driving sales there. Titan has its own factories in the US, but also two import terminals where it unloads cheap Greek cement.

By comparison, Titan’s Greek-European branch is almost four times smaller in terms of turnover and has a profit margin of 16 percent, which is lower than the 20 percent for the American business.

Titan Cement moved its main listing from Athens to Brussels in 2019 to gain more visibility among investors. The share has become one of the silent stars of the Brussels price board.

Growth continues unabated. In the first quarter, turnover rose 6.1 percent to 624 million euros. Gross operating profit increased 2.5 percent to 110 million euros. Net profit even rose 18 percent to 53 million. “We enjoyed growing volumes, strong pricing, improved operating efficiencies and the resilience of the US economy,” management said.

“Strong performance, especially because the first quarter is traditionally the quietest,” KBC Securities responds. The exchange house repeats the purchase recommendation.