Displaying items by tag: India

India: Domestic institutions, which together hold 9% in Ambuja Cements and have voted against the Ambuja-Holcim merger deal, have left the whole transaction on a knife-edge as Holcim is now banking on foreign funds to rescue it.

For the US$2.32bn deal to go through, Holcim needs approval from the majority of Ambuja Cements' minority shareholders.

This is the first merger and acquisition transaction to go under the hammer of minority shareholders after India's capital market regulator, Sebi, empowered them to approve or reject transactions in February 2013.

The voting process, which ran for three weeks, closed on 19 November 2013 and early indications suggest that most of the Indian minority shareholders have voted against the deal.

LIC, the biggest Indian institutional investor in Ambuja Cements, GIC and other public sector insurance companies have voted against the deal that would enable Ambuja Cements to emerge as Holcim's flagship firm in India.

The exact response of foreign institutions such as Aberdeen, JP Morgan and Oppenheimer, who together own about 30% stake in Ambuja Cements could not be ascertained.

Ambuja Cements declined to comment on the voting results, which will be officially released on 21 November 2013.

India: Holcim has received approval from the Foreign Inevestment Promotion Board (FIPB) to merge holding firm Holcim India with its unit Ambuja Cements as part of a plan to restructure its India operations.

Holcim, which has majority stakes in two leading Indian cement makers, ACC and Ambuja Cements, announced in July 2013 its plan to consolidate operations in a cash and share deal in a two-step process, valued at about US$2296m. However, since Holcim's proposal is more than US$190m, it required approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) headed by Prime Minister Manamohan Singh.

Holcim said that as part of the restructuring process, Holcim India's over 50% stake in ACC will go to Ambuja and Holcim's stake in Ambuja will rise to 61.4% from a little over 50% following the merger of Holcim India with Ambuja.

Ambuja Cements would merge Holcim India through cash and share transactions. Ambuja will first acquire a 24% stake in HIPL for US$554.1m.

India: Continued oversupply coupled with low prices pushed The India Cements Ltd (ICL) into the red in the second quarter of 2013. The South India-based cement company said that it had incurred a net loss of US$3.6m for the quarter ending 30 September 2013, compared with a net profit of US$7.8m during the same quarter in 2012. Weak demand for cement resulted in mounting pressure on cement selling prices.

India: Birla Corporation is planning invest around US$154m to set up new units in four states, according to local media. The company will set up three grinding cum blending units in Madhya Pradesh, one grinding unit in Bihar, one blending unit in Uttar Pradesh and another in Jharkhand, which will have a combined capacity of 4.5Mt/yr. Birla Corporation has eight manufacturing facilities located in Pune, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gurgoan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

India: The Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has signed an agreement with the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) to share the power from a 75MW power plant to be built at Bokajan in Karbi Anglong district in Assam. Fuel grade raw petroleum coke generated at the NRL after a capacity expansion will be used to generate power for the units with the surplus provided to the national grid.

"The proximity of the Bokajan (CCI) unit to the location of NRL's refinery provides the advantage of cheap rail transportation cost for both entities. This possible synergy will be economically favourable to both of the companies and will benefit the region as a whole," said NRL officials.

India: Konark Cement, a subsidiary of OCL India, is building a 1.35Mt/yr grinding plant at Salboni in West Bengal. The cement producer is also intending to use laminated polypropylene (LPP) bags at the unit to minimise wastage.

At present Konark Cement produces seven varieties of cement; OPC 53 grade, OPC 53-S grade, OPC 43 Grade, PSC, PPC (Flyash based), SRPC and masonry Cement, according to OCL India deputy executive director Indrajit Chatterji. OCL India has two cement plants at Kapilash and Rajgangpur in Orissa with a combined production capacity of 5.35Mt/yr.

India: Shree Cement reported a 24.5% dip in net profit for the July - September quarter at US$28m. The company, which has 13.5Mt/yr cement production capacity and 560MW/yr power generation capacity, had produced US$37m net profit in the same quarter last fiscal year. Total income of the company during the quarter fell to US$203m from US$211m in 2012. Revenue from both cement and power businesses of the company dropped during the quarter.

Expenses during the period went up to US$181m from US$163m in the July - September quarter of 2012 due to higher freight and other expenses. Freight costs of the company went up to US$41m for the quarter from US$35m in the year-ago period. Other expenses during the period went up to US$40m from US$33m.

India: Suman Mukherjee, CEO and Managing Director of Shree Digvijay Cement Company, has resigned from the cement producer due to personal reasons. His resignation takes effect from 31 October 2013. He will also leave the board of directors at this time.

India: Ultratech Cement has reported a 52% year-on-year drop in profits to US$43m for the quarter ending on 30 September 2013 from US$89m in the same period in 2012. It attributed the fall to lower prices due to reduced demand.

"The results of the quarter have been impacted mainly on account of lower selling price and subdued demand. Cement demand remained sluggish on account of prolonged monsoon and low offtake from the infrastructure and housing sectors," the Aditya Birla Group subsidiary said in a statement.

Net sales fell to US$731m from US$763m. Ultratech sold 9.1Mt of cement and clinker in the second quarter of 2013. Total expenditure rose to US$666m from US$638m.

Ultratech saw a benefit from a reduction in the price of coal minimised by the devaluation of the rupee. However, optimisation of the fuel mix helped to reduce power and fuel inputs. The Indian cement producer said that demand for cement may grow 5% during the current fiscal year, driven by housing and infrastructure spends.

India: Reliance Cement has said that it will commission its US$485m cement plant in Madhya Pradesh in October 2013. The company is due to complete the project in 22 months, five months ahead of its original schedule. The 5Mt/yr cement plant includes a 10MW waste heat recovery system. The plant is intended to target markets in central, eastern and northern India.

The Madhya Pradesh plant follows the company's 0.5Mt/yr cement plant in Butibori, Maharashtra that was launched in 2012.