90 years ago, on February 27, 1934, the “Compañia de Cemento Argos” was established in Medellín, Colombia, a company focused on the “exploitation of the cement industry and production of any other materials or articles based on lime or clay…”. Today, Grupo Argos is a leader company in infrastructure and a key player in the construction materials, energy, real estate rentals, and road and airport concessions industries.
It all started with visionary entrepreneurs who dreamt about creating a company that would promote housing growth and civil works in Colombia. A wide number of areas in Antioquia were explored in order to identify limestone and other minerals deposits and reserves while structuring at the same time the project that would be called Cemento Argos.
At the time, the founders faced challenges with shortage of the capital to materialize this project which lead them to reach out for regional cooperation and as a result, important assets in Colombia among 99 partners, between natural and legal persons, this cooperation brought enough capital to start the construction of the plant and start operations two years later.
The first years of Cemento Argos came with an accelerated expansion of its production capacity to meet the growing demand in Colombia. This also lead to its participation in the creation of local cement plants such as Cementos del Valle, Cementos del Caribe, Cementos de Caldas, and Cementos Rioclaro, among many others.
One of the company’s most recent action, involves Argos USA, combining assets with Summit Materials and consolidating infrastructure asset management platforms. This resulted in a company with an approximate company value (EV) of USD 9,000 million, listed on the New York Stock Exchange and in which Cementos Argos (current company name) has a 31% stake.
This union has 5.5 billion short tons of aggregates, equivalent to more than 90 years of reserves, giving Cementos Argos exposure to a sector in which it previously had no relevant exposure. The new company has 11.8 million tons of installed cement capacity, 224 concrete plants, 32 asphalt plants and a presence in 30 states.
Currently, the company which at first had an installed capacity of 15,000 tons, has grown through the years to more than 24 million tons, with 40 million vehicles traveling through the company’s road concessions, 45 million people using its airport concessions, and 1.3 million customers served by its energy business. Today, it is an organization with over 11,000 employees, presence in 21 countries, and manages approximately COP 50 trillion in assets.
Quote: https://www.grupoargos.com/