The boards of Jaiprakash Associations and UtraTech Cement on Monday signed a revised amendment on Aditya Birla Group company’s bid to buy Jaypee Cement for Rs 16,189 crore. Earlier, UtraTech had bid for a sale price of Rs 15,900, but pressure from a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India pushed the price up.
Manoj Gaur, executive chairman of the Jaypee Group said the sale would help them reduce their overall debt in “these current turbulent times caused by the economic slowdown in the country. The deal looked shaky in the last-minute, with JSW Cement and American private equity firm KKR coming in with their own bids. However, UltraTech upped its price in last-minute negotiations.
The deal is yet to be finalised, but if it is, it will increase UltraTech’s production capacity to 91 million tonnes, increasing its lead over Holcim as India’s biggest producer of cement. Jaypee’s capacity will go down to 10.6 million tonnes a year, putting it in sixth place, The Times of India reported.
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