India: Ambuja Cements announced on 21 November 2013 that shareholders had approved a proposal by Swiss parent firm Holcim to rejig its Indian cement units, winning 377m of the 550m votes placed (68.5%). 173m votes were placed against the merger.

The resolution for the scheme of amalgamation between Holcim India and Ambuja Cements was passed through postal ballots with the majority of public shareholders voting in favour.

Holcim had proposed in July 2013 the restructuring of its Indian operations by merging subsidiary Holcim India with Ambuja Cements and transferring Holcim India's 50.01% stake in ACC to Ambuja, making it a holding company of ACC. Holcim now has a 61.4% stake in Ambuja.

Public institutional holders, which hold 614m shares in the company, cast 534m votes. Of them, 67.9% voted in favour and 32.0% against the merger. Other public holders cast 15.4m votes. Of these, 13.6m were in favour and 1.80m were against.

As per the new regulation of the market regulator SEBI, companies require approval from the majority of the minority shareholders for mergers and acquisitions.

Holcim claims that this transaction will further improve its holding structure in India, strengthen the platform for future growth and generate synergy benefits of US$144m/yr. "These benefits, which will be realised in a phased manner over two years, will be shared by both companies equally through supply chain," said Bernard Fontana, CEO of Holcim.