Aditya Birla Group firm UltraTech has announced the acquisition of debt-ridden JP Group’s cement plants for Rs 16,500 crore, making it the biggest deal in the sector. The buyer will pay an additional amount of Rs 470 crore to complete the grinding unit. In a transaction that will take its cement portfolio to nearly 91 million tonne, UltraTech Cement will acquire 22.4 mt of assets from Jaiprakash Associates. The deal includes two units in Madhya Pradesh.

UltraTech Cement said it entered into a binding Memorandum of Understanding with Jaiprakash Associates Limited for the acquisition of its identified cement plants having total cement capacity of 22.4 MTPA (million tons per annum) situated in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. UltraTech said the assets will give it access to the newer markets of Satna, UP East, Himachal Pradesh and Coastal Andhra where it does not have a presence as of now.

Did You Know?

• The Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate named after Aditya Vikram Birla, headquartered in the Aditya Birla Centre in Worli, Mumbai, India.
• It operates in 40 countries with more than 120,000 employees worldwide.
• The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857.
• The group interests in sectors such as viscose staple fibre, metals, cement (largest in India), viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom (third largest in India), BPO and IT services.