How Adani group outstripped JSW to become India's 2nd largest cement maker
India Today
Adani group has become the second-biggest player in the country after UltraTech Cement, which has a capacity of 120 million tonnes per year.
Asia's richest man, Gautam Adani-led Adani group, has acquired a controlling stake in Switzerland-based Holcim AG's cement businesses in India in a deal worth $10.5 billion. With this, the Adani group became the second biggest cement producer in the country.
Gautam Adani's conglomerate acquired 63.19 per cent of Ambuja Cements Ltd and its subsidiary ACC in fierce bidding with other companies. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022, Holcim said, as per a Reuters report.
Adani group sought to chase ready-made assets that would immediately give them a big presence in the market.
India is the second largest cement producer in the world and accounts for more than 7 per cent of the global installed capacity, according to government data.
Ambuja and ACC have a combined capacity to make at least 66 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). The two companies together have 23 cement plants, 14 grinding stations, 80 ready-mix concrete plants and over 50,000 channel partners across India.
Adani group has in the last couple of years diversified beyond its core business of operating ports, power plants and coal mines into airports, data centres and clean energy.
The group had last year set up two cement subsidiaries -- Adani Cementation Ltd and Adani Cement Ltd -- under Adani Enterprises Ltd. Adani Cementation Ltd was planning to set up two cement units at Dahej in Gujarat and Raigarh in Maharashtra.
