France-based Vicat SA has bought a 51 per cent stake in Hyderabad’s Bharathi Cement Corp, promoted by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, a Congress legislator and son of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Vicat, in a statement on Monday announcing the stake purchase, did not disclose the purchase prices.
However, M Ravinda Reddy, director of marketing of Bharathi Cement said recent deals involving other Indian cement firms had been struck at US$230/t of capacity. Bharathi expects to have a capacity to produce 5Mt of cement by year-end.
He added that the firm had been “looking for a global partner both for technology and getting a pan-India footprint.”
Vicat has already established a joint venture company in India with Sagar Cements to build a greenfield cement plant in Gulbarga, Karnataka to produce 5.5Mt of cement. The plant will start operating in 2012.
