According to reports, India’s Aditya Birla Group, which owns UltraTech Cement, has made a bid for the Brazilian and Filipino assets of Holcim being divested as part of its merger with Lafarge. The Swiss cement group has three integrated plants, two grinding plants and a ready-mix plant in Brazil and three units in the Philippines. The enterprise value of the assets is said to be around US$1.5 billion. The deadline for bids passed on 20 October. The company has declined to comment thus far, though it confirmed last week that it always looked at opportunities as they came up.
UltraTech Cement is the largest cement manufacturer in India with a total capacity of 62 million t. It currently has facilities in UAE, Bahrain and Bangladesh, but the proposed acquisitions would turn the company into a truly global player.
The Indian cement manufacturer is reportedly preparing a bid for the assets of Holcim and Lafarge, which are up for sale as a result of the companies’ planned merger.
Urs Bleisch has been nominated to join the Holcim Executive Committee and Alain Bourguignon has been seconded to the joint Divestment Committee that has been set up to deal with the proposed asset disposals following the announcement of the LafargeHolcim merger.