Birla Corp in Rs.5,000 cr deal with Lafarge for cement units

The M.P. Birla Group on Monday said it was acquiring the cement business of Lafarge India for Rs.5,000 crore through a combination of internal accruals and fresh debt to add another 5.5 million tonnes in annual capacity.

The deal, to be executed by Birla Corp and its subsidiaries, calls for the acquisition of Sonadih cement plant in Chhattisgarh, the grinding unit at Jajobera in Jharkhand, as also the Concreto and PSC brands of Lafarge India, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Birla Corp, established in 1919 and with units in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, has a current capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum. The deal, when executed, would make it 15 million tonnes.

The France-based Lafarge, which itself entered India in 1999 by acquiring the cement business of Tata Steel, also has units in Rajasthan, Haryana and West Bengal. Its total cement production capacity in the Indian market is currently around 11 million tonnes.