Transaction:
- The Adani Family, through an offshore special purpose vehicle, announced that it had entered into definitive agreements for the acquisition of Switzerland-based Holcim Ltd’s entire stake in two of India’s leading cement companies – Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd.
- Holcim, through its subsidiaries, holds 63.19% in Ambuja Cements and 54.53% in ACC. The value for the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements and ACC was USD ~10.5 billion.
About Holcim:
- The Holcim Group, formerly LafargeHolcim, is a Swiss MNC that manufactures building materials such as cement, aggregates and ready mix concrete. It has a presence in around 70 countries, and employs around 72,000 employees.
- Ambuja Cements and ACC currently have a combined installed production capacity of ~70 MTPA. Two companies have 23 cement plants, 14 grinding stations, 80 ready-mix concrete plants and over 50,000 channel partners across India.
About Adani Group:
- Adani Group is a diversified organization headquartered in Ahmedabad, India with market cap of over $170 Bn, comprising of 7 publicly traded companies.
- Group has presence in port management, electric power generation and transmission, renewable energy, mining, airport operations, natural gas, food processing and infrastructure.
Rationale:
- This is the largest acquisition of Adani group till date and make Adani second largest cement player in India (Capacity of ~70 MTPA) after UltraTech cement ltd. (Capacity of ~120 MTPA)
- Mr Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group commented that India continues to be the world’s second largest cement market and yet has less than half of the global average per capita cement consumption. In statistical comparison, China’s cement consumption is over 7x that of India’s.
- He added that Holcim’s global leadership in cement production and sustainability best practices brings to us some of the cutting-edge technologies that will allow us to accelerate the path to greener cement production. In addition, Ambuja Cements and ACC are two of the strongest brands recognized across India.
- Rapid urbanization, growing middle class and affordable housing together with the post-pandemic recovery are expected to drive the growth of the cement sector.
- Both Ambuja and ACC will benefit from synergies with the integrated Adani infrastructure platform, and presence of Adani group in ports and logistics business, energy business, and real estate business.
- Press release said that the acquisition will also benefit from Adani’s focus on ESG, Circular Economy & Capital Management Philosophy and will continue to be deeply aligned to UN Sustainability Development Goals.
- Holcim, after its merger with Lafarge in 2015, has divested in large markets outside its core regions of Europe and North America. Also Holcim wants to reduce its CO2 profile as making cement is an energy intensive process and produces high levels of Carbon, which deters investors and reflects on valuation. This deal will reduce Holcim’s CO2 profile. Holcim expects to use sale proceeds of this deal to focus on light weight building materials business with acquisitions in segments like building products and solutions.
- ET reported that a SPV will be floated where the Adani family will infuse $1.25 to $1.5 Bn as equity and similar amount is expected from a Middle East investor group to the total of $3 Bn. Global banks are expected to lead a funding of further $4.5 Bn as acquisition financing.
Adani group has subsequently made an open offer to acquire 26% of stake in Ambuja cement at price of Rs. 385 per share and ACC Ltd. at price of Rs. 2300 per share.
Acknowledgements:
RBI Bulletin (www.bulletin.rbi.org.in), SEBI (www.sebi.gov.in), NSE (www.nseindia.com), BSE (www.bseindia.com)
Disclaimer:
This material has been prepared by the personnel in Vora Corporate Finance which is Investment Banking arm of Vora Management Consultancy Private Limited and looks after Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Private Equity (PE), Fund Raising, Debt syndication and Valuations and is based out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Any views or opinions expressed herein are solely that of individual authors and may differ from view of Vora Management Consultancy Private Limited. This material is proprietary to Vora Management Consultancy Private Limited and is for your personal use only. Any distribution, copy, reprints or forward to others is strictly prohibited.
This material captures the information based on information available in the public domain, public announcements and sources believed to be reliable. Analysis contained herein is based on publicly available information and appropriate assumptions. This material is intended merely to highlight market developments and is not intended to be comprehensive and does not constitute strategic, investment, legal or tax advice. In no event Vora Management Consultancy Private Limited be liable for any use by any party or for any decision made or action taken by any party in reliance upon, or for any inaccuracies or errors in, or omissions from, the information contained herein and such information may not be relied upon by you for evaluating any transaction.
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