Adani complete acquisition of Ambuja Cements & ACC, become country’s 2nd largest

The Adani Group on Friday completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements and its subsidiary ACC Ltd from Switzerland’s Holcim Group for $6.4 billion, the company said in a statement.

“The Adani Family, through Endeavour Trade and Investment Ltd (“BidCo”), a special purpose vehicle, has successfully completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd. The transaction involved the acquisition of Holcim’s stake in Ambuja and ACC along with an open offer in both entities as per SEBI Regulations,” the statement reads.

The value of the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements and ACC is $6.5 billion, which makes this the largest-ever acquisition by Adani, and also India’s largest ever M&A transaction in the infrastructure and materials space.

Post the transaction, Adani will hold 63.15 per cent in Ambuja Cements and 56.69 per cent in ACC (of which 50.05 per cent is held through Ambuja Cements).

Speaking about the acquisition, Adani Group Chairman Gautam Chairman said: ‘What makes cement an exciting business is the headroom for growth in India, which exceeds that of every other country well beyond 2050.’

‘Cement is a game of economics dependent on logistics and distribution costs and energy costs, and the ability to leverage a digital platform to transform production as well as gain significant supply chain efficiencies. Each one of these capabilities is a core business for us and therefore provides our cement business a set of unmatched adjacencies,’ he said, adding that these adjacencies eventually drive competitive economics.

‘Our position as one of the largest renewable energy companies in the world will help us manufacture premium quality green cement well in line with the principles of a circular economy. All of these dimensions put us on track to become the largest and most efficient manufacturer of cement by no later than 2030,’ he added.

Currently, Ambuja Cements and ACC have a combined installed production capacity of 67.5 MTPA.

The two companies are among the strongest brands in India with immense depth of manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure, represented by their 14 integrated units, 16 grinding units, 79 ready-mix concrete plants and over 78,000 channel partners across India.

“The Board of Ambuja Cements approved an infusion of INR 20,000 crore into Ambuja by way of preferential allotment of warrants. This will equip Ambuja to capture the growth in the market,” it said.