Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani on Sunday, May 15, clinched a $10.5 billion deal to acquire a 63.19% stake in Swiss cement major Holcim Ltd’s India operations, Ambuja Cements Ltd and its subsidiary ACC Ltd. This deal is India’s biggest M&A transaction in the infrastructure and materials space, the Adani Group said.
With this acquisition, the Adani group will have a manufacturing capacity of about 70 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) and become the second-largest cement producer in India after the Aditya Birla Group-owned UltraTech Cement. Another major bidder for the acquisition was the JSW Group.
Holcim Ltd. held a 63.19% stake in Ambuja Cements and 54.53 per cent in ACC (of which 50.05 per cent is held through Ambuja Cements).
The Holcim group will receive 6.4 billion Swiss francs ($6.4 billion) in cash from the sale. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022. Further, the Adani Group said that it would acquire more shares through an open offer. The open offer price for Ambuja Cements will be ₹ 385 while that of ACC will be at ₹ 2,300, as per a stock exchange filing.
This sale is Holcim Ltd’s attempt to reduce its reliance on carbon-intensive cement production, an industrial process which produces high levels of CO2 emissions and has therefore deterred many environmentally-conscious investors.
In the last few years, the Adani group has diversified beyond its core business of operating ports, power plants and coal mines into airports, data centres and clean energy. Last year, it set up two cement subsidiaries — Adani Cementation Ltd and Adani Cement Ltd.
“Our move into the cement business is yet another validation of our belief in our nation’s growth story,” said Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group.
“Not only is India expected to remain one of the world’s largest demand-driven economies for several decades, India also continues to be the world’s second-largest cement market and yet has less than half of the global average per capita cement consumption. In statistical comparison, China’s cement consumption is over 7x that of India’s. 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 added.
