Birla Corporation to buy Lafarge’s cement factories in India

New Delhi: Swiss giant LafargeHolcim on Monday announced Rs 5,000-crore sale of its two cement plants in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to Birla Corporation, the flagship firm of the MP Birla Group.

 

The world’s biggest building materials supplier had to sell the two units after Competition Commission of India (CCI) in April this year approved the merger of Holcim and Lafarge on the condition that the latter will divest one cement plant and one grinding station in eastern India.

 

The deal will help Birla Corp expand presence in eastern India, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh. It has cement plants in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal.

 

In a statement on Monday, LafargeHolcim said, “It has entered into a letter agreement with Birla Corp subject to approval by the CCI for the divestment of certain of its assets in India as part of the merger of its legacy companies for an enterprise value of Rs 5,000 crore (approx. CHF 750 million).

 

The proceeds from the sale of the divestment business will be used to further reduce debt.” After the divestment, LafargeHolcim will have a cement capacity of around 68 million tonnes in India.

Reacting to this, Birla Corp shares hit the upper circuit at Rs 543.50 apiece at the BSE and closed at Rs 540.25, over 19 per cent up.