India: Jaiprakash Associates shareholders agree to sale

India: Jaiprakash Associates shareholders agree to sale
25 October 2016


Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) on Monday said its shareholders have approved the sale of the firm's cement business to Aditya Birla Group's UltraTech Cement. Approval from Competition Commission of India (CCI) has been received and the next step involves seeking approval from the concerned High Court and the final approval from capital markets regulator.

Earlier this year, the Aditya Birla Group firm announced acquisition of Jaiprakash Associates' cement plants with a total capacity of 21.1Mta at an enterprise value of INR161,890m (US$2.4bn). JAL's meeting of the equity shareholders held on 22 October 2016 approved "Scheme of Arrangement (merger) between Jaiprakash Associates (JAL) and Jaypee Cement Corporation (JCCL) and UltraTech Cement and their respective shareholders and creditors", it added.

According to the deal, UltraTech will pay INR161,890m to buy Jaypee Group's cement operations that have a total capacity of 17.2Mta spread across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh.

In addition, it will acquire a 4Mta grinding unit being constructed in Uttar Pradesh. Of this, 11.2Mta capacity is in central India, 5Mta in coastal Andhra Pradesh and 4.8 Mta in Himachal Pradesh.

UltraTech said: "Transaction is expected to complete in next 5-6 months."

Published under Cement News