Adani Group has acquired Switzerland-based Holcim’s entire stake in India’s two leading cement companies, Ambuja Cements and ACC, through an offshore special purpose vehicle amounting to USD10.5 billion.
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas & Co (CAM) acted as legal counsel to Adani, while AZB & Partners advised Holcim, along with Ambuja Cements and ACC, on the deal.
AZB partners Ashwath Rau, Kashish Bhatia, Samir Gandhi, Jasmin Karkhanis, Bharat Budholia, Toshit Shandilya and Aditya Singh Chandel led the team.
The CAM team was headed by managing partner Cyril Shroff, along with partners Anchal Dhir and Paridhi Adani. The transaction team was comprised of partners Dhir, Aditya Prasad and Navin Kumar.
The financing team was led by partner and head of projects Santosh Janakiram, partner Subhalakshmi Naskar and principal associate Anand Deshpande.
The Competition Law advisory and application process was led by Avaantika Kakkar, partner and head of competition law, with partner Kirthi Srinivas, and associates Aakriti Thakur and Swaha Sinha.
Other team members comprised of counsel Monark Gahlot, principal associate Anush Mathkar, and associates Janani Chandrasekaran, Suryanarayana Mohan, Rishit Vimadalal and Shivani Sathe.
Latham & Watkins acted as English law counsels to Adani Group and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer were the counsel to Holcim group.
The deal is seen as the largest acquisition made by Adani, and also India’s largest mergers & acquisitions transaction to date in the infrastructure and materials space.
Endeavour Trade and Investment (Adani’s Mauritius incorporated company) will be acquiring a 100% shareholding of Holderind Investments, based in Mauritius (promoter of Ambuja Cements and ACC), from Holderfin BV, a Holcim group company.
Holcim, through its subsidiaries, holds 63.19% in Ambuja Cements and 54.53% in ACC (of which 50.05% is held through Ambuja Cements).
Ambuja Cements and ACC currently have a combined production capacity of approximately 70 million tonnes per annum. They are among the strongest brands in India with extensive manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure, with 23 cement plants, 14 grinding stations, 80 ready-mix concrete plants and more than 50,000 channel partners across India.
The group’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises has two cement subsidiaries. With this deal, Adani will be the second-largest cement company in India with approximately 68 metric tonnes per annum.
Apart from Adani Enterprises, companies such as JSW Group, Dalmia Bharat, Aditya Birla Group’s UltraTech Cement and ArcelorMittal were also believed to be in the race for Holcim group’s Indian assets.
