Barclays, Deutsche Bank, StanChart in talks with Adani to lend upto $750 mn for Ambuja Cements debt
Ambuja Cements Ltd., said a report by Bloomberg onThursday. The loan would be syndicated, said the report citing people familiar with the matter. The talks haven’t yet concluded, and the amounts could still change, said the report.
In January, US shortseller Hindenburg had accused the Adani Group of widespread corporate malfeasance. Adani has denied the allegations. AdaniConneX sold $213 million worth of senior debt to finance data center construction in June, while flagship firm Adani Enterprises Ltd.
raised ₹1,250 crore through a local currency bond sale earlier this month. Adani bought Holcim Ltd.’s Indian cement assets last year. To finance that deal, bridge loans maturing in 2023 and 2024 were taken out by Mauritius-domiciled Endeavour Trade & Investment, the Adani Group vehicle that acquired Holcim’s cement business.
Adani Group will continue to use its ACC and Ambuja cement brands to sell cement products and has no plans to merge the two entities, Ajay Kapur, chief executive officer of both cement companies, said on July 20. Earlier this year, media reports had said that the Adani Group was exploring a merger between the two companies. The group became India's second-largest cement producer in 2022, behind UltraTech Cement, with its $10.5 billion acquisition of both Ambuja Cements and ACC from Switzerland's Holcim.
“No disruption is expected in the usage of these legacy brands," added Kapur had said. “We are looking to improve the cement business's EBITDA margins by ₹400-450 per ton over the next 24 months," Kapur had said. 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%, he also said.
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