India Cements to raise $150m to part fund capex
The board of India cements on Monday decided to raise a maximum of US$150m including premium by way of issue of equity/ equity-linked securities in the Indian/international markets. It is to part fund ICL’s fresh capex of Rs 1,500 crore and help the company become a pan-India player with two plants in the north.
The company has convened an EGM on December 14 to get the approval of shareholders. Based on the guidelines, pricing will be a maximum of Rs 268 per share (Rs 10 paid up) against the current market price of Rs 300. The new investment will be in addition to the Rs 700 crore embarked on by the company to scale up total capacity of its plants in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to 14 MT by October 2008 from the current 8.9 MT.
ICL vice-chairman and MD N Srinivasan on Monday said it is mainly looking at raising fresh money through a GDR issue. It is to part finance its new plants in the north, acquire two ships of 40,000 tonne capacity each for coal import and set up lignite-based captive plants for the new cement plants in the north.
The balance capex will be funded from internal generations. He said the company is looking at Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh for setting up the new cement plants.
Published under Cement News
