Ahmedabad-headquartered soaps and chemicals major Nirma Ltd on Monday announced agreement with cement giant LarfargeHolcim to buy latter's cement assets in India for Rs 9,400 crore ($1.4 billion). The deal would be subject to clearance from the Competition Commission of India (CCI). With this mega buy, Nirma is all set to enter the cement space in India in a big way. Nirma, which was founded by Karsanbhai Patel, has presence in soaps, detergents, salt, soda ash, caustic soda, cement, packaging, etc.

It has 12 manufacturing facilities in India and the US and has a turnover of over Rs 7,300 crore. Upon completion, Nirma will emerge as one of India's top 10 cement players with footprint in Eastern, Northern and Western India through 13 million tonnes of cement capacity and over 72 readymix sites. The company will have substantial presence in slag cement in the East, while reinforcing strong portfolio of PPC and OPC products. The combined operations will span 2 facilities in Chhattisgarh, 2 in Rajasthan, and 1 each in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Haryana.

Nirma's cement sales will spread across 11states: Chattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, NCR region, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Nirma will have a strong distribution network of 3,500 in the East and 2,700 in the North. Nearly 6,000 employees of LafargeHolcim will join the Nirma Parivaar through this transaction.

Hiren Patel, Managing Director, said: "This acquisition is a landmark &transformational step for the Nirma group's cement business. With a strong platform like Lafarge's India business, we plan to take the cement business to the next level and continue to serve customers with the philosophy of better products at better value for better living". LafargeHolcim CEO Eric Olsen said: "This agreement is an important step in our 3.5 billion Swiss franc divestment programme. With this deal, two thirds of the programme has been secured and the remainder of the program is well on track."

Lafarge India operates three integrated cement plants, two grinding stations and a blending unit with a total capacity of around 11 million tonnes per annum. The Company has 14 per cent market share in East India and ranks second in the region by market share. Primary brands of the Company like Concreto, Duraguard etc. command premium market pricing with significant brand recall.

The company also has market leading readymix concrete business with nearly 72 sites pan-India. In November 2014 Nirma commissioned its first cement plant in Rajasthan and established market presence for its "Nirmax" brand in Northern and Western States through a network of more than 1,200 dealers. The company will fund the acquisition through equal proportion of equity and target level financing.

here is company details.

 

NOTE :You need to login first to access this feature.