Gautam Adani’s group announced on Sunday that it had reached an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Holcim Ltd’s Indian operations for USD 10.5 billion.
The Adani Group will buy 63.1 percent of Ambuja Cements Ltd and related assets. Ambuja’s local subsidiaries, ACC Ltd, are also publicly traded.
“The Adani Family announced that it had entered into definitive agreements to acquire Switzerland-based Holcim Ltd’s entire stake in two of India’s leading cement companies Ambuja Cements Ltd also ACC Ltd,” the group said in a statement.
Holcim owns 63.19 percent of Ambuja Cements and 54.53 percent of ACC through subsidiaries (50.05 percent is held through Ambuja Cements).
According to the statement, “the value for the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements also ACC is USD 10.5 billion. Making this Adani’s largest-ever acquisition and India’s largest-ever M&A transaction. In the infrastructure and materials space.”
Adani has recently expanded beyond its core business of operating ports, power plants. And coal mines to include airports, data centers, and clean energy.
Last year, the group established two cement subsidiaries: Adani Cementation Ltd. Which planned to launch two cement units in Dahej, Gujarat, Raigarh, Maharashtra, also Adani Cement Ltd. Holcim, the world’s largest cement manufacturer, announced its exit from the country last month after a long struggle. The company has a capacity of 66 million tonnes per year through two listed entities, ACC and Ambuja (MTPA).
Holcim was in dialogues with several business houses, added Aditya Birla Group. Which owns UltraTech, a leading cement player, also JSW Group, a steel-to-energy conglomerate.