Adani Group Receives Sebi Nod For $3.8 Billion Open Offer For Ambuja, ACC: Report

Cement major Holcim Ltd.’s a few months ago decided to sell its majority stake in May to the Adani Group

Gautam Adani is set to make an offer to buy 26 per cent of Ambuja Cements Ltd. for Rs 385 per share and the same stake for Rs 2,300 per share of ACC Ltd. after getting Sebi approval.

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Adani Group has got necessary regulatory approval for Rs 30,100 crore ($3.8 billion) open offer to acquire remaining shares of two Indian cement makers, quoting sources, Bloomberg said on Friday.

Cement major Holcim Ltd.’s a few months ago decided to sell its majority stake in May to the Adani Group.

According to the report, the group, led by Asia’s richest person Gautam Adani, is set to make an offer to buy 26 per cent of Ambuja Cements Ltd. for Rs 385 per share and the same stake for Rs 2,300 per share of ACC Ltd. after getting a nod from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the sources told the news agency.

The deal was also cleared by the country’s antitrust regulator, CCI, last week.

However, representatives of Adani Group and Sebi didn’t immediately respond on the open offer approval.

According to the stock market rules, acquiring 25 per cent or more of the shares in a local listed firm will trigger a mandatory open offer where minority shareholders can choose to sell their stakes to the new investor at a predetermined price.

Adani’s open offer price for Ambuja is at 6 per cent discount compared to Thursday’s closing price while that for ACC is at a 1 per cent discount, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

ICICI Securities Ltd. and Deutsche Bank AG are advising Adani on the open offer.

The Holcim transaction is set to propel the Adani Group to become India’s second-largest cement producer virtually overnight in what’s an extremely fragmented and competitive market.

Holcim in May agreed to sell its 63 per cent stake in Mumbai-listed Ambuja Cements to Adani Group, which said then that it plans to spend to spend about $10.5 billion on the stake purchases and open offer consideration for Ambuja and related entities.

As part of the deal, Adani will inherit Ambuja’s controlling stake in another publicly traded cement producer, ACC, and will buy Holcim’s direct 4.5 per cent holding in the unit.