Adani Completes Acquisition Of ACC And Ambuja Cements, Becomes India's Second Largest Cement Player

Adani Group on Friday (16 September) announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd.

The acquisition was done through Endeavour Trade and Investment Ltd, a special purpose vehicle incorporated by the Adani Group.

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 company said in a statement.

The value of the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements and ACC is $6.50 billion, which makes this the largest ever acquisition by Adani, and also India’s largest ever merger and acquisition (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), the company said.

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

With this acquisition, Adani is now India’s second largest cement manufacturer.

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 company said.

"What makes cement an exciting business is the headroom for growth in India, which exceeds that of every other country well beyond 2050,” said Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani.

“Cement is a game of economics dependent on energy costs, logistics and distribution costs, and the ability to leverage a digital platform to transform production as well as gain significant supply chain efficiencies," Adani said.

"Each one of these capabilities is a core business for us and therefore provides our cement business a set of unmatched adjacencies. It is these adjacencies that eventually drive competitive economics," he added.

Adani further said that the group's position as one of the largest renewable energy companies in the world will help it in manufacturing 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.