Adani group launches Rs 31000-cr open offer for ACC, Ambuja Cements stakes; offer opens today, closes Sep 9 Adani group launched Rs 31,000-crore open offer on Friday to acquire 26 per cent additional stakes from the public shareholders of ACC and Ambuja Cements, closely following its acquisition of Swiss firm Holcim’s stakes in the two cement firms. Adani group has offered to buy 26 per cent of Ambuja Cements stake for Rs 385 per share and the same stake for Rs 2,300 per share of ACC. Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) gave approval to the open offer last week. The open offer is estimated at over Rs 31,000 crore if fully subscribed. Earlier May this year, Adani group announced that it would acquire a controlling stake of 26% in Holcim Ltd’s businesses in India for $10.5 billion (around Rs 81,361 crore), marking the ports-to-energy conglomerate’s entry into the cement sector. Also read: Bajaj Auto, M&M, Bharat Electronics among 153 stocks to hit 52-week high on BSE, 14 scrips at fresh lows In May, Adani group, helmed by billionaire Gautam Adani, had announced that it would launch an open offer at Rs 385 apiece for Ambuja Cements and Rs 2,300 apiece for ACC. Under the proposal, Adani group intends to acquire up to 51.63 crore equity shares of Ambuja Cements or 26 per cent of its expanded share capital (total voting share capital) aggregating Rs 19,879.57 crore. For ACC, it has offered to acquire up to 4.89 crore shares held by public shareholders shares, representing 26 per cent of the expanded share capital, for a total of Rs 11,259.97 crore, the update by ICICI Securities and Deutsche Equities India, who are the joint managers to the offer, said. Also read: L&T share price jumps 8% in one month; brokerages says buy, stock may rally this much in 12 months ACC share price was up nearly 1 per cent to Rs 2,306 apiece on BSE, against the previous close of Rs 2,285.15 a share. The open offer price is at a 0.6 per cent premium to ACC last closing price. Ambuja Cements share price was up 1.2 per cent to Rs 401.95 apiece on BSE, as compared to the Thursday’s closing price of Rs 397.10 apiece. The open offer price is at 3.14 per cent premium to previous close. Adani group will acquire 63.1 per cent of Ambuja Cements along with related assets. Ambuja’s local subsidiaries include ACC Ltd, which is also publicly traded. Swiss building material major Holcim, through its subsidiaries, holds 63.19 per cent in Ambuja Cements and 54.53 per cent in ACC (of which 50.05 per cent is held through Ambuja Cements). Ambuja Cements and ACC currently have a combined installed production capacity of 70 million tonne per annum. The two companies together have 23 cement plants, 14 grinding stations, 80 ready-mix concrete plants and over 50,000 channel partners across India.
Logistics, good or bad, are driven by the states and the commerce ministry has a LEADS (Logistics Ease Across Different States) report, based on perceptions. The 2023 version was released in December. Since states are heterogenous, in the reporting, they are divided into four groups—coastal, landlocked, north-east, and UTs. States that do well are called achievers. Nomenclature matters. Thus, states that are middling aren’t called average. They are called fast movers. States that are sub-par are called aspirers. Let me highlight coastal states, since 75% of export cargo is estimated to originate from them. Among coastal states, ones that do well are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The ones that lag are Goa, Odisha, and West Bengal. While India’s logistics performance may have improved over time, that’s not true of every state. Some have slipped. Most states have a state-level logistics policy, including Goa and Odisha. West Bengal, bottom of the pecking order in the coastal category, doesn’t have one. To quote from LEADS 2023, “Looking ahead, the State (West Bengal) could benefit from formulating a State Logistics Master Plan and State Logistics Policy to drive efficiency improvements and facilitate investments within the logistics sector and undertake consultation with the logistics stakeholders for educating and informing them about the initiatives State is undertaking for the development and improvement of logistics sector.”
Logistics has been talked about for a long time and India has also focused on improving performance. We are now getting some precise data on measurement and quantification. That helps.
Bibek Debroy, chairman, EAC-PM. Views are personal.