Adani group makes Rs 31,000 crore open offer for ACC, Ambuja Cements

After acquiring Swiss firm Holcim’s stakes in ACC Limited and Ambuja Cements, the Adani group kicked off the Rs 31,000-crore open offer on Friday to acquire 26 per cent additional stakes in the two cement firms. 
Earlier this year, the Adani Group had said that it has struck a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Holcim Ltd's businesses in India for $10.5 billion.

Swiss building material company Holcim and its subsidiaries hold a majority stake of 63.19 per cent in Ambuja Cements and 54.53 per cent in ACC, of which 50.05 per cent is held through Ambuja Cements.

As per the current deal, the Adani group would take over Holcim’s 63.06 per cent stake in Ambuja, besides acquiring a direct 4.48 per cent stake in ACC. The new bids would make the Adani Group the parent company of India’s two major cement companies. The deal marks the ports-to-energy conglomerate's entry into the cement sector.

As per the company details, the group had said in May that it would launch an open offer at Rs 385 apiece for Ambuja Cements and Rs 2,300 apiece for ACC. Under this deal, Adani group wants to take over to 51.63 crore equity shares of Ambuja Cements or 26 per cent of its expanded share capital (total voting share capital) aggregating Rs 19,879.57 crore.

For ACC Ltd, the group has offered to take up 4.89 crore shares held by public shareholders, which is 26 per cent of the expanded share capital, for a total amount of Rs 11,259.97 crore, a notice issued by ICICI Securities and Deutsche Equities India stated. ICICI Securities and Deutsche Equities India are the joint managers in the offer.

It is to be noted that as per the SEBI guidelines, the acquirer (here Adani group) needs to make a mandatory offer to the existing shareholders to the extent of 26 per cent of outstanding shares.

Last week, markets regulator SEBI granted a go-ahead for the open offer. The open offer is estimated at over Rs 31,000 crore if fully subscribed. The tendering of shares started from August 26 and will continue till September 9, 2022.

In two separate regulatory filings, Ambuja Cements and ACC have submitted their letter of offer for the open offer, launched by the Adani family group's Mauritius-based firm Endeavour Trade and Investment.

On Friday, shares of ACC Ltd closed at Rs 2,288.05, up by 2.90 per cent. Its 52-Week High was Rs 2,587.95, while its 52-week low was Rs 1,900.50.

On other hand, the Ambuja Cements stock closed trading at Rs 402.70 on the BSE, up 1.41%. 
At present, Ambuja Cements and ACC have a combined installed production capacity of 70 million tonnes per annum. Together, both have 23 cement plants, 14 grinding stations, 80 ready-mix concrete plants, and over 50,000 channel partners across India.

(With agency inputs)