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Displaying items by tag: India
Consultant alleges fraud at Binani Cement
21 March 2018India: Vijaykumar Iyer, a resolution professional with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India working for Binani Cement, has alleged that fraudulent transactions have taken place involving the promoters of the company. Iyer made an application in mid-March 2018 to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Kolkata asking the court to take action and ‘appoint an appropriate investigation agency to investigate the directors of Binani Cement and the counter parties,’ according to the Economic Times. Sources quoted by the newspaper say that the application is likely to receive a hearing imminently. Binani Cement has denied the allegations.
Iyer’s application said that he had appointed Haribhakti & Co as a ‘forensic consultant’ in November 2017 for reviewing and identifying ‘suspect’ transactions. He said that since the inception of the corporate insolvency resolution process, he had not been provided access to all the required information and documents. He alleges that Binani Cement made several payments to ‘potentially related and/or connected customers and entities,’ such as Saraswati Sales (SSPL) and US$75.4m was outstanding at the end of November 2017, suggesting that sales were made to SSPL despite the fact that corresponding payments were not made to the corporate debtor. Other inconsistencies were also found suggesting that money was being removed from the business without paying outstanding debts.
Dalmia Bharat beat UltraTech Cement in a bidding war to buy Binani Cement for US$974m in early March 2018 in an auction was run by the National Company Law Tribunal under insolvency proceedings. However, UltraTech Cement has since made a US$1.11bn bid directly to Binani Cement to stop the insolvency process. UltraTech Cement has said it is ‘shocked’ by the allegations by Iyer and that it was unaware of any pending investigations when it made its latest offer.
India: UltraTech Cement has made a new US$1.11bn bid directly to Binani Cement in order to buy it. Binani’s parent company Binani Industries is independently seeking to stop the insolvency proceedings of its cement subsidiary using the money offered by UltraTech Cement in a so called ‘comfort letter.’ In a statement UltraTech Cement said it had in principle agreed to buy 98.5% of the shares of Binani Cement.
However, a consortium led by Dalmia Bharat won an auction for Binani Cement with a bid of US$974m in early March 2018. The auction was run by the National Company Law Tribunal under insolvency proceedings. Binani Cement has since complained that the bidding process was not run on a transparent process, according to the Economic Times newspaper. It added that the ‘shortcomings’ in the insolvency process had prompted the company to look at other options. The on-going struggle by UltraTech Cement and Dalmia Bharat is expected to test local bankruptcy law.
India: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued a show cause notice to Parasakti Cement for processing hazardous waste like battery scrap and operating without permission. The CPCB also noted that the particulate matter emissions from clinker rollers and cement mill exceeded the revised standards, according to the Times of India newspaper. The cement plant, based at Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, has been given 15 days to remedy the situation. Previously in 2016 the company said it was complying with the emissions regulations.
Imported petcoke price to India hits high in March 2018
19 March 2018India: The price of imported petcoke has hit a multi-year high in March 2018. Increased demand and a shortage due to maintenance work at refineries has caused the rise in price, according to the Mint newspaper. In November, the Indian Supreme Court temporarily banned the use of petcoke in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The import duty of the fuel was then raised to 10% from 2.5%.
Deepak Kannan, managing editor of Asia Thermal Coal at S&P Global Platts, said that local demand for petcoke is around 23 – 24Mt/yr but that local supply is only 14Mt/yr. Much of the country imported petcoke comes from the US or Saudi Arabia. Petcoke prices are expected to relax in April 2018 as refineries return to normal operation.
Cemex to target acquisitions in India and Brazil
16 March 2018Mexico: Cemex’s chief executive officer (CEO) Fernando González says that the company is nearly ready to start considering acquisitions after a decade of asset sales and debt reduction. He told analysts at a conference in New York that the company will seek shareholder approval in April 2018 to issue new shares to raise capital, which it could eventually use along with debt and cash, according to Dow Jones.
The building materials producer plans to focus on cement operations in large emerging markets and on aggregates in developed markets. Major markets where Cemex doesn't have operations include India and Brazil and it would be interested in targeted these regions. The company has also striven to regain its investment-grade credit rating it held until 2008 when its earnings fell following its US$15.5bn purchase of Rinker.
India: The Fly Ash Council of Maharashtra has asked state power generation company Mahagenco to plan how to give fly ash for free to industrial users. The initiative follows the decision by the state government to adopt its Fly Ash Utilisation Policy, according to the Indian Express newspaper. An official said that the power company would give away fly ash for free within 100km of the plant if it is affordable. The measure was introduced to encourage cement manufacturers and construction companies to use more fly ash by offsetting the transportation cost. At present smaller companies receive the fly ash for no charge.
In 2015 - 2016, Maharashtra used 69% of the fly ash generated in thermal power plants in the state. With an installed capacity of 20,976MW, the state generated 18.6Mt of fly ash during this period, of which 13Mt was used, mostly to make bricks and to build roads. With the new policy the government is targeting a 100% utilisation rate.
ACC and Ambuja enter Master Supply Agreement
13 March 2018India: With a merger of LafargeHolcim subsidiaries ACC and Ambuja Cement on hold, the two companies have proposed entering into a Master Supply Agreement (MSA) with each other with the aims of increasing synergies, reducing operational costs and increasing the companies’ joint sustainability.
This agreement is for supply of cement, clinker, raw materials (including fuel, fly ash, slag, gypsum etc), spare parts and for providing toll grinding services at certain plants. This will be executed through purchase orders, subject to a pricing formula. This will enable each company to optimise the cost of servicing markets by using each other’s plant’s capabilities, maximise the utilisation of assets to generate additional sales for each company and make best use of their joint spare inventory.
Vicat to spend Euro223m on Indian operations
12 March 2018India: France’s Vicat plans to spend Euro223m towards upgrading a cement plant and building a new one in India. Group chairman Guy Sidos signed two memoranda of understanding on a recent French business delegation to India, according to the Economic Times newspaper. Vicat’s local subsidiary, Kalburgi Cement, plans to spend Euro140 on an upgrade to its Karnataka cement plant. The upgrade will add 2.25Mt/yr of cement capacity and will be completed by the first quarter of 2023. It also plans to invest Euro60m towards building a new 1.75Mt/yr plant in the Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh. The new plant is scheduled for completion in mid-2022. Once both projects are completed Kalburgi Cement will have a total cement production capacity of 6.75Mt/yr from two units.
India: The government of Haryana is investigating the transfer of around 122 acres belonging to the Associated Cement Companies’ (ACC) closed Bhupendra Cement plant to a Mumbai-based builder. According to Kalka MLA Latika Sharma, the land’s lease said it could only be used for industrial use, according to the Times of India newspaper. However, the builder it has been transferred to intends to build a town. Education minister Ram Bilas Sharma Sharma told the state congress that the Haryana Police had gathered ‘strong’ material on alleged irregularities in the entire issue and the government had decided to get the matter probed by the state vigilance bureau. The Bhupendra Cement plant at Surajpur near Pinjore was originally built in 1937. It was closed in 1997 on environmental grounds.
India: NCL Industries has completed a production capacity upgrade project for both clinker and cement. Commercial operations for the upgrade started on 7 March 2018. The cement producer increased its clinker capacity to 2.6Mt/yr and cement capacity to 2.7Mt/yr in 2017. It operates an integrated cement plant at Simhapuri in Telangana and a cement grinding plant at Kondapalli in Andhra Pradesh. It sells cement under the Nagarjuna Cement brand.