Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Cemex SAB, the world’s third-largest cement maker, is considering selling a 5-year to 10-year bond within six months to pay bank debt and push maturities beyond 2014, Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Zambrano said.

Capital markets have opened enough for the company to try to sell a bond only months after completing an agreement with banks to refinance $15 billion of debt in August, Zambrano said in an interview today in Monterrey, Mexico. The sale would be in addition to a convertible bond Cemex has said it will sell.

“The indication we have so far is that there is significant market for us in long-term 5-, 7-, 10-year paper,” Zambrano said. “I don’t know exactly what we will do, but definitely we will try to stretch our payment schedules.”

The company has made no decision, spokesman Jorge Perez said. “We are evaluating alternatives that strengthen more quickly our financial flexibility,” Perez said after the interview.

Cemex wants to regain its financial health and investment- grade rating as quickly as possible, Zambrano said. The company has already taken steps to repay debt with a share sale in September that raised net proceeds of $1.78 billion and the sale of its Australian operations in October for $1.7 billion.

Debt Rating

The company’s attempt in March to sell a $500 million bond failed as investors asked for interest rates the company wasn’t willing to pay. Following the failed bond sale, Standard & Poor’s cut its Cemex debt rating by five levels to B-, or six levels below investment grade, amid concern the company might default. S&P raised the company’s rating one level to “B” this month.

The company encountered financial trouble after it tripled its debt to pay $14.2 billion for the shares of Rinker Group Ltd., which drew more than 80 percent of sales from the U.S., in July 2007 as the U.S. housing market headed toward recession. Annual housing starts plummeted to as low as 479,000 in April after peaking in January 2006 at 2.27 million

Cemex plans to continue selling assets to pay debt, although it will now be able to choose the timing and get a better price. Assets the company plans to sell in the northern U.S. and other parts of the world had been identified as “non- core” before the financial crisis hit, Zambrano said.

“The important part here is we don’t have to, we want to. That’s the difference,” he said.

Selling the company’s Australian operations was a “hard decision” because of the timing, Zambrano said. It was necessary because the sale proved to banks that the company was serious about reducing debt, he said.

‘Within Our DNA’

Cemex won’t renounce acquisitions even after the Rinker purchase. Growing through acquisitions is “within our DNA,” and the company will watch for opportunities even as it repays bank debt, Zambrano said.

“There are many ways of adding value to the company. Acquisitions with cash is not the only way. You can do all sorts of transactions, and we’re looking at them,” Zambrano said. “If they make sense, hopefully our debt-holders will see the light and allow us to do it.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Black in Monterrey at tblack@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 17:30 EDT