Adani Group Makes $3.9 Billion Open Offer For Two Cement Firms After Approval
Adani Group has received regulatory approval for an almost 311.6 billion rupees ($3.9 billion) open offer to buy the remaining shares of two Indian cement makers, following Holcim Ltd.'s decision in May to sell its majority stake to the conglomerate.
The group, led by Asia's richest person Gautam Adani, has offered to buy 26 per cent of Ambuja Cements Ltd. for Rs 385 per share and the same stake for Rs 2,300 per share of ACC Ltd., according to two exchange filings filed Friday by ICICI Securities Ltd. and Deutsche Bank AG, which are advising Adani.
The open offer for both the cement firms will run from August 26 to September 9, the filings said.
Bloomberg reported earlier in the day about the ports-to-power conglomerate getting a nod from Securities & Exchange Board of India for this open offer citing people familiar with the development.
Shares for Ambuja and ACC pared their gains on Friday after Bloomberg's story was published. They later recovered some ground to close the day 2.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent higher respectively.
Indian stock market rules say that acquiring 25 per cent or more of the shares in a local listed firm will trigger a mandatory open offer where minority shareholders can choose to sell their stakes to the new investor at a predetermined price.
Adani's open offer price for Ambuja is at 6 per cent discount compared to Thursday's closing price while that for ACC is at a 1 per cent discount, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The deal was also cleared by India's antitrust regulator last week.
The Holcim transaction is set to propel the Adani Group to become India's second-largest cement producer virtually overnight in what's an extremely fragmented and competitive market.
Holcim in May agreed to sell its 63 per cent stake in Mumbai-listed Ambuja Cements to Adani Group, which said then that it plans to spend to spend about $10.5 billion on the stake purchases and open offer consideration for Ambuja and related entities.
As part of the deal, Adani will inherit Ambuja's controlling stake in another publicly traded cement producer, ACC, and will buy Holcim's direct 4.5 per cent holding in the unit.
--With assistance from P R Sanjai and Dhwani Pandya.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
