CEMEX Announces An e-Business Investment.

Business Editors

MONTERREY, Mexico--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2000

CEMEX, S.A. de C.V. (NYSE:CX) announced today that it has become the sole seed investor in Miami-based PuntoCom Holdings ("PCH"), a Latin American e-business development accelerator, as part of its broad Internet and e-business strategy. The capital committed to PCH is US$20 million.

PCH aims to become Latin America's premier e-business development accelerator, focusing primarily on business-to-business (B2B) opportunities, plus a handful of very large business-to-consumer (B2C) categories.

PCH is organized to identify and develop the most attractive e-business opportunities across the region, adapting successful e-business models from the U.S. and Europe to Latin America's distinctive conditions, and then rapidly rolling them out region-wide.

PCH's CEO is Raul Rivera. Mr. Rivera is the former head of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in South America and a recognized Latin American e-business strategist. Seven directors comprise PCH's senior management team. They bring together significant general management experience in the region with over 40 years of experience at world-class management consulting firms. They will actively support the development and roll-out of PCH portfolio companies across the region, through a network of development offices already opened in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Through its participation in PCH, CEMEX aims to gain insights into the myriad of value-added e-business opportunities this emerging new medium presents for its core businesses. As part of this initiative, CEMEX is also investing US$30 million in PuntoCom Investments (PCI), a Delaware-based venture fund which will make investments in Latin American e-businesses, CEMEX owns 100% of the capital of PCI and the fund has the right to co-invest in PCH portfolio companies.

CEMEX is one of the three largest cement companies in the world, with approximately 65 million metric tons of production capacity. It is also the world's largest trader of cement and clinker and the world's leading producer of white cement. A pioneer in the use of information technology, CEMEX is engaged in the production, distribution, marketing and sale of cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates and clinker through operating subsidiaries in four different continents.