Fifteen months after announcing the acquisition of 21.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of cement capacity from Jaiprakash Associates, the Aditya Birla Group’s UltraTech Cement on Thursday completed the ₹16,189 crore acquisition, making UltraTech the fourth largest private cement company in the world and the biggest in India with capacity of 93 mtpa.
Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla told The Hindu : “This deal primarily gives us complete geographical coverage, like in eastern Uttar Pradesh and coastal Andhra Pradesh. We didn’t have a presence there. In some States, we were there but not strong enough, like in Uttarakhand and Himachal. The whole focus is now on consolidation and getting returns out of this asset. We will invest ₹500-₹700 crore spread over the next two years.”
He was optimistic of opening the payments bank in July, and expects completion of merger of his telecom firm Idea Cellular with Vodafone India by mid 2018.
