Aditya Birla Group Ltd last month acquired about 23% stake in India Cements Ltd. At the time, UltraTech termed it a “non-controlling financial stake” and later said it would acquire another 32.72% from the company’s promoters and associates.
With this, UltraTech has launched an open offer under which shareholders of India Cements are obligated to acquire an additional 26% stake in the company. “The acquirer has no intention to delist the target company pursuant to this open offer,” UltraTech said in a stock exchange filing on Monday.
UltraTech has appointed Axis Capital as manager for the open offer and has launched an offer to acquire 8,05,73,273 shares in the company at Rs 390 a share. UltraTech has also acquired shares from promoters at this price and an initial 23% from investor Radhakishan Damani at Rs 268 a share.
The offer price represents a 4.6% premium to Monday’s closing price of 372.85 rupees. However, India Cements’ shares have risen more than 42% since UltraTech first acquired a stake in the company in June. UltraTech, which currently has a production capacity of over 150 million tonnes, aims to reach a production capacity of 200 million tonnes by March 2027. Though the company has nearly a quarter of the Indian market share, its presence in South India is relatively weak. The acquisition of India Cements, one of the largest cement producers in the region with a production capacity of 13 million tonnes in South India alone, is seen to strengthen the company’s presence in the region as it seeks to maintain its dominance across the country.
