Ambuja Cements, owned by Gautam Shantilal Adani, an Indian billionaire industrialist, has announced that it has acquired cement com颅pany Sanghi Indus颅tries in a US$600 million deal.

Adani鈥檚 Ambuja Cements, which his group bought last year from Switzer颅land-based Holcim for US$10.5 billion, is acquir颅ing 57% of the shares in Sanghi from its fam颅ily own颅ers, with the  com颅pany val颅ued at around US$600 million after tak颅ing into account debt and liquid assets. The deal makes the company India鈥檚 second-biggest cement maker.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Adani is fund颅ing the deal entirely through its own cash, as opposed to taking on debt to complete the deal. Sanghi has India鈥檚 largest plant for cement and clinker and pro颅duces approximately 6 million tonnes of cement per year. 

鈥淲e are optim颅istic about the acquis颅i颅tion by Ambuja Cements, recog颅nising it as a mutu颅ally bene颅fi颅cial oppor颅tun颅ity for both of the share颅hold颅ers,鈥� said Ravi Sanghi, Sanghi Indus颅tries鈥� chair and man颅aging dir颅ector.

India鈥檚 cement market is expected to increase due to Nar颅en颅dra Modi鈥檚 drive to improve infra颅struc颅ture.

Adani said it aimed to increase Sanghi鈥檚 pro颅duc颅tion to 15mn tonnes per year. Its cur颅rent assets pro颅duce 67.5mn tonnes a year, with a tar颅get of 140mn tonnes by 2028.

The move marks the con颅glom颅er颅ate鈥檚 return to acquis颅i颅tions fol颅low颅ing a report by US-based short seller Hinden颅burg Research in Janu颅ary. It accused Adani of fin颅an颅cial mis颅con颅duct and knocked . Adani strongly denies the claims and its shares have recovered much of their losses.