The Adani Group on Sunday said that it will buy Switzerland-based building material company Holcim’s stakes in Ambuja Cements and Associated Cement Companies, or ACC Limited.
The conglomerate set up a special purpose vehicle for the acquisition and agreed to buy the stakes for $10.5 billion (about Rs 81,556.12 crore).
Holcim, through its subsidiaries, currently holds a 63.19% stake in Ambuja Cements and 54.53% in ACC Limited. Out of the 54.53% stake in ACC, Holcim holds 50.05% through Ambuja Cements.
The Adani Group said that this will be the conglomerate’s largest-ever acquisition.
The group will also become the second-largest player in the cement sector after the Aditya Birla Group’s UltraTech Cement, The Hindu reported.
The conglomerate’s move into the cement business was “yet another validation of our belief in our nation’s growth story”, the Adani Group’s chairperson Gautam Adani said.
Adani said that India is the world’s second-largest cement market, but its per capita cement consumption is less than half of the global average. He added that cement consumption in China is over seven times that of India.
“When these factors are combined with the several adjacencies of our existing businesses that include the Adani Group’s ports and logistics business, energy business, and real estate business, we believe that we will be able to build a uniquely integrated and differentiated business model and set ourselves up for significant capacity expansion,” he said.
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