Irish cement producer CRH brings Argentinian to manage its business in Romania

CRH Romania, one of the largest local producers of building materials, has appointed Argentinian-born Gustavo Navarro as general manager. CRH Romania has had no general manager for almost a year, after its previous GM Costin Borc left the company last fall to join the new Government as Economy Minister. Navarro, 53, has 12 years of experience in top management positions in the construction materials industry in South-Eastern Europe and Russia. He managed Swiss cement producer Holcim’s business in Sebia and Russia as CEO. He was also a board member at Holcim Romania between 2009 and 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before that, he was active in the pharma and packaging industry. He graduated from the University of Economics in Buenos-Aires and got an MBA from the Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. Navarro has also been active within business organizations in Serbia. He was a member of the board in Serbia’s Foreign Investors Council and AmCham Serbia. At CRH Romania, Gustavo Navarro will manage a business of close to EUR 250 million and over 860 employees (2015 figures). The group owns four companies in Romania, the biggest of which is cement producer CRH Ciment, which had sales of EUR 192 million and a net profit of EUR 23.7 million last year, according to official data from the Finance Ministry. Cement producer led by current Romanian Economy Minister ups net profit CRH Romania owns cement factories in Medgidia and Hoghiz, a grinding station in Targu-Jiu and a network of cement terminals, quarries, gravel pits, and concrete stations all across Romania. CRH Romania is the local subsidiary of Irish group CRH, which bought French group Lafarge’s operations in several countries, including Romania, after the Holcim-Lafarge merger. Both Holcim and Lafarge had significant operations in Romania and the newly formed group had to give up some assets due to competition issues. Romania’s M&A market reaches over EUR 3 bln deals completed in 2015 editor@romania-insider.com