French cement-maker Vicat has acquired a 51% stake in Bharathi Cement Company Ltd (BCCL), promoted by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, member of Parliament from Cuddapah and son of late Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. The deal has been done through a reserved capital increase and the acquisition will be financed through debt. The company did not disclose the value of the acquisition.
According to a Vicat statement, BCCL operates a cement plant of two lines that will reach a total annual capacity of five million tonne of cement at the end of 2010 in Andhra Pradesh. The current cement company is 2.5 million tonne. FE was not able to reach Jagan Mohan Reddy till the time of going to print.
This is the second major transaction of Vicat in India. It has already established a joint venture company with Sagar Cements to build a greenfield cement plant in Gulbarga in Karnataka investing $625 million. Sagar Cements is run by Anand Reddy, who heads the marketing and strategic aspects and Srikanth Reddy who handles operational and technical issues.
The plant will produce 5.5 million tonne of cement per annum on two clinker production lines with each of daily capacity of 6,000 tonne. The first line of production with an annual cement capacity of 2.75 million tonne will be commissioned in 2012.
