Adani Group becomes India’s 2nd largest cement maker

Billionaire Gautam Adani clinched a $10.5 billion deal that grants his conglomerate a 63.19 per cent stake in Swiss cement major Holcim Ltd’s India operations, Ambuja Cements Ltd and its subsidiary ACC.

With this, the Adani Group became the second largest cement producer in the country after the Aditya Birla Group owned UltraTech Cement. The JSW Group was also in the race to acquire the Ambuja-ACC combine.

Holcim, through its subsidiaries, holds 63.19 per cent stake in Ambuja Cements and 54.53 per cent in ACC (of which 50.05 per cent is held through Ambuja Cements). The value for the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements and ACC at $10.5 billion makes this India’s biggest M&A transaction in the infrastructure and materials space, the Adani Group said.

Holcim expects to receive 6.4 billion Swiss francs ($6.4 billion) of cash proceeds from the sale. The Adani Group said it would acquire more shares through an open offer. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022.

In the last couple of 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.

The group had last year set up two cement subsidiaries — Adani Cementation Ltd, which was planning to set up two cement units at Dahej in Gujarat and Raigarh in Maharashtra; and Adani Cement Ltd.