Titan signs deal for Albania
International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank group, and the European Bank for Reconstruction will take a stake in Titan Cement’s Albania subsidiary in exchange for a 33.6-million-euro loan, the Greek company said yesterday. The two lenders will take a 50 percent stake in Titan’s Albanian subsidiary, Antea Cement, as part of the finance deal. «Antea is in the process of building a new cement production plant in Albania. The new factory will have a production capacity of 1.5 million tons and is expected to start operating by the end of 2009,» the Greek company said in a statement. Titan, which operates in seven countries, has seen profits drop recently on deteriorating market conditions in Greece and the USA. Shares in the company, which has a total market capitalization of 882 million euros, fell 5.46 percent on the Athens bourse yesterday to 11.46 euros, bringing losses in the last six months to 61 percent.
