Adani-Holcim deal: Open offers for Ambuja Cements and ACC from July 6

The open offers for the shareholders of Ambuja Cements and ACC will begin from July 6 and close on July 19, as per a tentative schedule published by the Adani family today. With an investment of $4 billion (Rs 31,139 crore), together these two open offers might constitute the biggest open offer in corporate Indian history.

The mandatory open offer for the companies was made by a Mauritius based company owned by the Adani family after they acquired a 63 per cent stake in Ambuja and 4.5 per cent in ACC from Swiss cement major, Holcim for $6.5 billion. Ambuja owns a 50 per cent stake in ACC. The entire acquisition will cost the Adani family around $10.5 billion (Rs 81,000 crore). The entire open offer exercise will be over by the first week of August, as per notices issued by both companies.

On a combined basis, the Adani open offers would pip Unilever open offer when in 2013, Unilever had announced a Rs 29,220 crore open offer to acquire 487 million shares of Hindustan Unilever, to raise its stake by about 22 per cent.

According to the notice, Endeavour Trade and Investment, a Mauritius-based entity owned by the Adani family, will buy up to 516 million shares, representing 26 per cent of the share capital of Ambuja Cements, at a price of Rs 385 per share, aggregating to a total consideration of Rs 19,879 crore.

Similarly, the Adani family offered to buy 26 per cent of ACC at a price of Rs 2,300 per share for Rs 11,259 crore (assuming full acceptance).

The independent directors of both companies will be publishing their recommendation by July 4th to the shareholders of both companies. The transactions will be subject to getting various regulators approvals including the Sebi and the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

The Adani family has opened an escrow account with Barclays Bank in Mumbai and made a cash deposit to fund both offers.

Ambuja and ACC currently have a combined installed production capacity of 70 million tonnes 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. The acquisition will make the Adani family the second biggest cement maker in India after Ultratech.

Data source: SEBI Compiled by BS Research Bureau

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