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New Delhi / Bloomberg
UltraTech Cement Ltd, India’s largest cement producer, said it will buy units of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd., including equity and debt, for 165 billion rupees (US$2.4 billion).
The deal will increase UltraTech’s capacity 33 percent to 90.7 million tons and give it access to newer markets in six Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the Mumbai-based company said in a statement today.
Jaiprakash, the Noida, India-based builder of the country’s only Formula One track, is selling assets to cut debt, which more than doubled to 753 billion rupees in five years through March 2015, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
KKR & Co. and JSW Cement Ltd. had also bid for for the cement assets of Jaiprakash, people familiar with the matter said last month. A deal between UltraTech and Jaiprakash last year for sale of two cement plants had to be called off pending necessary approvals.
The cancellation was a “great concern” for Jaiprakash, which is trying to sell assets, its executive chairman Manoj Gaur said in the statement on Sunday.