Adani Group clarifies on merging ACC, Ambuja brands, says ‘no plan to merge ..’

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ACC and Ambuja cement brands as separate entities and no plan to merge the both, the clarification was given by Ajay Kapur, chief executive officer of both cement companies, said at an annual shareholder meeting. Earlier according to some media reports the Adani Group was looking to merge both Ambuja and ACC cement entity after it acquired them from Switzerland's Holcim in 2022 and is second largest cement producer in the country after the Ultratech Cement.

"We are looking to improve the cement business's EBITDA margins by 400-450 rupees per ton over the next 24 months," Kapur said, pointing to efforts to bring down production costs by streamlining manufacturing and logistics processes.ACC is looking to add 16 million tonnes of new capacity in the next two to five years as India's cement demand is seen growing at 7-8%, Kapur said as reported by news agency Reuters. "No disruption is expected in the usage of these legacy brands," added Kapur.

Shares of the two companies were, however, still trading lower than their January levels after a U.S. short-seller report battered shares of Adani group companies.

Ambuja and ACC were down 15.7% and 23% so far, respectively, since Hindenburg disclosed its short positions. Ambuja Cements and ACC have a combined installed production capacity of 67.5 MTPA.

The two companies are among the strongest brands in India with immense depth of manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure, represented by their 14 integrated units, 16 grinding units, 79 ready-mix concrete plants and over 78,000 channel partners across India. The two companies are among the strongest brands in India with immense depth of manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure, represented by their 14 integrated units, 16