Grasim to sell Digvijay stake for Rs 322cr

Grasim Industries, a part of the Aditya Birla group, today announced that
it has agreed to sell 53.3% stake in Shree Digvijay Cement to
Portuguese cement maker Cimpor for Rs 322 crore at Rs 42.50 per share.

The acquisition provides Cimpor, the world's ninth largest cement company, an opportunity to get into the booming cement industry, which is investing over Rs 50,000 crore to ramp up capacity.

Cimpor will also come out with a mandatory 20% offer for Shree Digvijay Cement.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group, had bought Shree Digvijay from the Kolkata-based Bangur family in 1998. It was one of his first major acquisition when he became the chairman of the group after
the demise of his father and the founder of the group Aditya Vikram Birla.

The top management of Grasim said that the group is ramping up capacities from 30 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 45 mtpa in the next 2-3 years even after selling Digvijay, which has a capacity of one million tonne. Shree Digvijay, a loss-making company, has a jetty in Gujarat.

Grasim had bought the cement business of Larsen & Toubro a few years ago, which was renamed UltraTech.  UltraTech has a capacity of six mtpa.

The cement industry has witnessed the entry of global giants like French firm Lafarge, Swiss firm Holcim, Italian cement maker ItalCementi and German firm Heidelberg.