Ambuja Cements acquires promoters' stake in Orient Cement; total shareholding reaches 46.66%

Adani Group-owned Ambuja Cements has completed the acquisition of 37.8% promoters' stake of CK Birla group firm Orient Cement Ltd (OCL) and has become a promoter.

With this, the total shareholding of Ambuja Cements in OCL has gone up to 46.66%, as it has also acquired 1.82 crore shares representing 8.87% from public shareholders of OCL.

Ambuja Cements shares closed 0.17% down at ₹577.90 apiece on the NSE on Tuesday, April 22.

At 10:04 am on Wednesday, April 23, the Ambuja Cements stock was trading 0.61% down at ₹574.35 apiece on the NSE. The company's market capitalisation stands at ₹1,41,469.50 crore.

Shares of Orient Cement were trading 0.54% up at ₹356.70 apiece on the NSE at 10:06 pm on Wednesday. Its market capitalisation stands at ₹7,328.75 crore.

"Ambuja has completed the acquisition of 7,76,49,413 equity shares (representing 37.79% of equity share capital) of the company from the promoter group," said a regulatory filing from OCL.

Pursuant to the acquisitions from the promoter group and public shareholders, Ambuja has acquired sole control of OCL and has become the promoter of the company, it added.

Last October, Ambuja Cements announced the acquisition of OCL at a valuation of ₹8,100 crore as part of its expansion drive. It had signed a binding agreement for the acquisition of the firm at an equity value of ₹8,100 crore.

Following a change in ownership, OCL also announced the resignation of its directors - Chandrakant Birla, Amita Birla, and Desh Deepak Khetrapal. Besides, OCL's four independent directors have also resigned.

Its CFO, Prakash Chand Jain, has been replaced by Kajal Sarda with effect from April 23, 2025.

The board led by the new promoter has appointed Vaibhav Dixit as Executive Director. It has also appointed Vinod Bahety as Chairman & Non-Executive Non-Independent Director with effect from the conclusion of the meeting on April 22, 2025.

Besides, three independent directors—Sudhir Nanavati, Shruti Shah and Ravi Kapoor—were also appointed to the board.

OCL further said, "Appointment of the Executive Director, Non-Executive Non-Independent Director and Non-Executive Independent Directors, as stated above, will be subject to the approval of the shareholders of the Company."

Adani Cement is expanding its capacity in the cement industry through an inorganic route by acquiring small rivals and through brownfield expansion by adding capacity to the existing units.

The Adani group aspires to have 140 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) capacity by FY28 pan-India, which will help reduce overall lead distances and logistics costs for the cement business and improve market share in its core markets.

Earlier in June 2024 Adani had announced the acquisition of Hyderabad-based Penna Cement at an enterprise value of ₹10,422 crore, which added 14 MTPA capacity to the country's second-largest manufacturer.

In December last year, it completed the acquisition of Saurashtra-based Sanghi Industries Ltd, at an enterprise value of ₹5,185 crore.

OCL has 5.6 MTPA clinker capacity and 8.5 MTPA cement capacity along with statutory clearance to increase the clinker capacity by another 6.0 MTPA and cement capacity by another 8.1 MTPA.

Adani Group entered into the cement sector in September 2022, after acquiring controlling stakes in Ambuja Cements from Swiss firm Holcim for cash proceeds of $6.4 billion (about ₹51,000 crore). Ambuja Cements owns a 51% stake in ACC Ltd.

Later it also launched a ₹31,000 crore open offer for the acquisition of 26% additional stakes from public shareholders.

The Indian cement market is led by Aditya Birla Group firm UltraTech Cement Ltd, which has a consolidated capacity of 183.06 MTPA.