Source: Cemex, S.A.B. de C.V.

On the heels of news of the renegotiating of a majority of its debt and the expected delivery of an additional US$200 million in cost savings by the end of 2009, Mexico's Cemex announced recently its decision to restructure the roles of top management that report to CEO Lorenzo Zambrano, in an effort to make the organization more effective and efficient.

Among the changes are:

-- Armando J. Garcia: Executive Vice President, Technology, Energy & Sustainability.

-- Francisco Garza: President, Americas.

-- Fernando A. Gonzalez: Executive Vice President, Planning & Development.

-- Hector Medina: Executive Vice President, Finance & Legal.

-- Juan Romero: President, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia & Australia.

-- Victor M. Romo: Executive Vice President, Administration.

This re-organization will be effective on May 15, and the Cemex says the changes "reflect [its] commitment to further develop [its] management team, and bring fresh perspectives that will reinforce operational and financial performance."

In late April, Cemex said it expects to realize an additional $200 million in cost savings from the company's ongoing effort to reduce costs and optimize its business, bringing the total expected savings from the company's cost-cutting initiatives to US$900 million, which includes US$700 million previously identified. The additional cost-savings identified represent an extension of earlier cost-saving measures originally initiated in 2008. All measures will be fully implemented before the end of the year. CEMEX will use the additional savings to more quickly achieve financial flexibility.

In March, the company announced it had initiated discussions with its core banks to renegotiate the majority of its outstanding debt, approximately US$14.5 billion in syndicated and bilateral obligations. This activity would represent a similar effort to CEMEX's successful January 2009 refinancing of a portion of its bilateral and syndicated loan facilities. Separately, the company is indefinitely postponing its previously-announced capital markets debt financing.

While the discussions are ongoing, Cemex intends to meet all its obligations across both bank and capital markets debt. In addition, while the company is currently focused on this course of action as the best opportunity to quickly achieve maximum financial flexibility, it will continue to consider other strategies including asset sales.