Ambuja Cements, the country's third largest cement-maker, has rejected Holcim's stock option plan, saying its own existing scheme is better than the one offered by the Swiss cement company. ACC, its sibling under the umbrella of Holcim, had accepted a similar offer recently.
Holcim has close to 50 per cent stake in Ambuja Cements and ACC and controls a fifth of the Indian cement market with a 42-million tonne capacity, which is to be increased to 55 million tonnes.
"We have got the same option that was offered to ACC, but we preferred our own stock option scheme as it is much better than Holcim's. And we will continue with our scheme," said A L Kapur, managing director, Ambuja Cements. The offer from Holcim is opened to all its associate companies across the world where it has its operations.
ACC had scrapped its employee stock option plan in 2005, following objections from some shareholders and the then chairman of ACC had stopped the scheme. Since ACC did not have any such scheme, the company went ahead with the offer from Holcim.
Under the scheme, a part of the annual performance bonus of eligible ACC executives gets converted into the Holcim stock at a fixed rate, which is at a discount over the market price of the stock. However, the shares of Holcim come with a lock-in period.
"The offer was not a new thing as it is open to all the companies of Holcim worldwide. It was left to us to decide. We debated the issue and found ours better and consequently informed Holcim," added Kapur.
"The Holcim scheme is limited to a few people. But, we, at Ambuja, have a scheme that is all inclusive," he said.
The Rs 5,800-crore cement-maker is embarking on an expansion plan to take its capacity to 27 million tonnes in the next two years from the current 19 million tonnes. The company is eyeing the southern market through the sea route and hopes to raise its market share. It has two port terminals to ship its cement from Gujarat to the South.