Adani Group gets Sebi approval for $3.8 billion open offer for Ambuja, ACC

The group, led by Asia's richest person Gautam Adani, is set to make an offer to buy 26% of Ambuja Cements Ltd. for 385 rupees per share and the same stake for 2,300 rupees per share of ACC Ltd

Adani Group has received regulatory approval for Rs301 billion ($3.8 billion) open offer to buy remaining shares of two Indian cement makers, according to people familiar with the matter, following Holcim Ltd.’s decision to sell its majority stake in May to the conglomerate.

The group, led by Asia’s richest person Gautam Adani, is set to make an offer to buy 26% of Ambuja Cements Ltd. for Rs 385 per share and the same stake for Rs 2,300 per share of ACC Ltd. after getting a nod from Securities & Exchange Board of India, said people familiar with the development, who did not want to be identified as the information is not public. 

Representatives of Adani Group and SEBI didn’t immediately respond on the open offer approval.

Indian stock market rules say that acquiring 25% or more of the shares in a local listed firm will trigger a mandatory open offer where minority shareholders can choose to sell their stakes to the new investor at a predetermined price. Adani’s open offer price for Ambuja is at 6% discount compared to Thursday’s closing price while that for ACC is at a 1% discount, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

ICICI Securities Ltd. and Deutsche Bank AG are advising Adani on the open offer.

The deal was also cleared by India’s antitrust regulator last week.

The Holcim transaction is set to propel the Adani Group to become India’s second-largest cement producer virtually overnight in what’s an extremely fragmented and competitive market.

Holcim in May agreed to sell its 63% stake in Mumbai-listed Ambuja Cements to Adani Group, which said then that it plans to spend to spend about $10.5 billion on the stake purchases and open offer consideration for Ambuja and related entities.

As part of the deal, Adani will inherit Ambuja’s controlling stake in another publicly traded cement producer, ACC, and will buy Holcim’s direct 4.5% holding in the unit.