The Adani Group said on Friday it is not evaluating any proposal to buy Jaypee Group’s cement business.
Earlier this week, reports stated that the Gautam Adani-led Group was in advanced talks to buy the debt-laden Jaiprakash Associates’ cement business for around ₹5,000 crore.
“It is submitted that the company is not evaluating any such proposal,” Adani Enterprises, the group’s flagship company, said in a clarification sent to the BSE.
The stock of Jaiprakash Associates reacted sharply, plunging 8.87% to ₹10.38 on the BSE after the clarification was announced.
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The board of directors of Jaiprakash Power Ventures and Jaiprakash Associates gave their go-ahead on October 10 to sell the cement units.
Jaiprakash Power Ventures has decided to divest the company’s Nigrie cement grinding unit as well as other non-core assets. As per the FY22 annual report of Jaiprakash Power Ventures, the cement grinding facility at Nigrie, Madhya Pradesh, has an installed capacity of 2 MTPA.
The Jaiprakash Group had an operating cement capacity of 10.55 MTPA spread across three main companies and other subsidiaries and associate companies, as per disclosure made by Jaiprakash Associates in its FY22 annual report.
Last month, the Adani Group completed the acquisition of Ambuja Cements and its subsidiary ACC from Switzerland’s Holcim Group for $6.4 billion. The twin acquisition made the group the second-largest cement player in India behind leader Aditya Birla-promoted UltraTech.
The Gautam Adani-led group has plans to double its cement manufacturing capacity and become the most profitable manufacturer in the country. Over the next five years, the group aims to have a cement production capacity of 140 million from the current 70 million.