Lorenzo Zambrano Trevino relishes investing in places others might not touch. That's why Cemex is spending $115 million to buy a minority stake in Indonesia's state-owned cement maker, PT Semen Gresik. ''Our best opportunities have come at the worst times,'' says Zambrano, 54. Since becoming CEO in the mid-1980s, he has turned Cemex into the world's third-largest cement maker.
Not bad. But more impressive is Cemex' ranking as Latin America's No.1 multinational. Since 1992, when Zambrano made two buys in Spain, he has planted the Cemex flag from Colombia to the Philippines. Mexico accounts for just over 40% of its $3.8 billion in sales, vs. over 90% a decade ago. He seeks to balance risk in one region with stability in another. ''We need to be in many markets to survive,'' he says.
Zambrano, who earned a Stanford MBA, credits the opening of Mexico's economy for the company's strategic rethink. He then invested in technology, to make Cemex one of the world's most efficient producers. Now, Zambrano is betting on an eventual recovery in Asia--and he plans to keep growing in other markets, too.
Copyright 2005, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.