(Live Mint)
UltraTech Cement Ltd, part of the Aditya Birla group, will acquire the cement business of BK Birla group’s Century Textiles and Industries Ltd in an all-stock transaction. Shareholders of Century Textiles will receive one share of UltraTech for every eight shares held, according to the plan. The enterprise value of Century’s cement business is pegged at Rs8,561 crore and UltraTech will absorb debt of Rs3,000 crore, managing director K.K. Maheshwari said over the phone.
Sunday’s announcement is the culmination of a plan that was eight years in the making and involved consolidating the cement businesses of the two groups into one firm and the BK Birla group exiting non-core businesses to focus on real estate. Century Textiles’ cement assets comprise three integrated units in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra with a total capacity of 11.4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) and a 2 mtpa grinding unit in West Bengal.
“The transaction provides UltraTech the opportunity for further strengthening its presence in the highly fragmented, competitive and fast-growing east and central markets and extending its footprint in the western and southern markets in the country,” the company said in a statement.
