DOW JONES NEWSWIRES CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- The Venezuelan government said Friday it plans to announce "a friendly agreement" with Mexican cement giant Cemex SAB (CX, CEMEX.MX) in the coming days, in the latest development between the two parties after Venezuela seized the company's local operations more than two years ago. In April 2008, the government of President Hugo Chavez expropriated Cemex's local assets, part of a broader move to bring strategic economic sectors under state control and implement a socialist revolution. Venezuela and the Monterrey company have been in negotiations in the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes since then. In a statement Friday, Venezuela's Science and Technology Ministry reiterated that it had reached agreements with other cement makers whose operations had also been nationalized. After a wave of acquisitions and seizures in 2008 that gave the Venezuelan government near total control over the country's cement industry, it agreed to pay $267 million to France's Lafarge SA (LFRGY) for 89% of its local unit, and $552 million to Switzerland-based Holcim Ltd (HOLN.VX) for 85% of its subsidiary. In 2010, the Chavez government nationalized more than 200 companies. -By Kejal Vyas, Dow Jones Newswires; kejal.vyas@dowjones.com; 58-414-249-6821
