Paving the way for the merger of two Aditya Birla group companies, the High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi has sanctioned the Scheme of Amalgamation of Aditya Birla Chemicals (India) Ltd. (ABCIL) with Grasim Industries Ltd, ABCIL said in a filing with the stock exchanges.
In February this year the Board of Grasim Industries had approved the proposed merger of ABCIL with itself with a swap ratio of one share of Rs.10 each of Grasim for every 16 shares of Rs.10 each of ABCIL. After the merger, Grasim will issue 14.62 lakh new shares, which will increase its share capital to Rs.93.31 crore.
Grasim, with an installed capacity of 452,500 tonnes per annum, is a leading manufacturer of caustic soda in India and has plants at Nagda (Madhya Pradesh) and at Vilayat (Gujarat). Caustic soda is used as an input in the manufacturing of viscose staple fibre.
ABCIL is one of India’s leading chlor-alkali companies with three manufacturing facilities located at Rehla (Jharkhand), Renukoot (UP) and Karwar (Karnataka) with an installed capacity of 293,000 tonnes of caustic soda per annum. It has a captive power plant of 110 MW.
The proposed merger will consolidate Aditya Birla Group’s chlor-alkali business into Grasim and strengthen its existing portfolio of viscose staple fibre, caustic soda and allied chemicals in the standalone company.
The move is in line with Aditya Birla Group’s strategy to unify similar businesses in one company.
ABCIL shares closed with a gain of 2.95 per cent at Rs 230.60 on the BSE. Grasim shares gained 0.30 per cent to close at Rs 3688.15 on the BSE.
