Displaying items by tag: UltraTech Cement

India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed the penalty on Shree Cement while issuing the final order in a case against cement manufacturers and their trade body, the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA).

"The Commission has imposed a penalty on Shree Cement Ltd at the rate of half of its profits for the years 2009 - 2010 and 2010 – 2011, aggregating to US$66.2m," said the CCI. The CCI added that it had, "Found 11 cement manufacturers, including Shree Cement and the CMA, in contravention of the provisions of the Competition Act 2002, which deal with anti-competitive agreements, including cartels." It asked Shree Cement to refrain from such anti-competitive activities in the future.

With regard to the other companies, the CCI said that as they were fined earlier, it was not imposing any penalty on them again for the same period of contravention. In June 2012 the CCI imposed a US$1.05bn fine on 11 leading cement makers, including ACC, Ambuja Cements, UltraTech, India Cements, Binani Cement, JK Cement, Madras Cement, Lafarge and Jaypee Cement. The industry body CMA was also fined US$121,717.

India: UltraTech Cement has received the approval of the Bombay and Ahmedabad High Courts to acquire Jaypee Cement's plant in Gujarat.

UltraTech has already received the approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), shareholders and creditors to buy the 4.8Mt/yr cement plant with a 57.5MW coal-fired thermal power plant, limestone reserves for over 90 years and a captive jetty at Sewagram, Maharashtra State, for US$639m. As part of the deal, UltraTech will absorb a debt of US$614m of Jaypee Cement and issue UltraTech shares worth US$25.2m to Jaypee Associates.

India: UltraTech Cement Ltd is in talks to buy cement assets from Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. The two companies are in discussions about projects, including Jaiprakash's Rewa cement plant in central India, which has a 7Mt/yr cement production capacity.

Selling additional assets would help Jaiprakash to reduce its debt, which jumped more than four-fold in the five years through March 2014 to US$10.3bn. In 2013 UltraTech agreed to buy a Jaiprakash cement unit based in Gujarat State.

Jaiprakash is also looking for buyers for cement assets in Himachal Pradesh State, where it owns two plants with a combined production capacity of 3.5Mt/yr. Jaiprakash sold its 74% stake in Bokaro Jaypee Cement Ltd, a joint venture with the Steel Authority of India Ltd, to Dalmia Bharat Ltd for US$194m in March 2014.

After its recent divestments, Jaiprakash has a cement production capacity of 26.4Mt/yr, according to a company presentation in May 2014. The company plans to sell assets valued at about US$1.35bn by March 2015.

India: UltraTech Cement, part of the Aditya Birla Group, has announced that its net profit declined year-on-year by 19% to US$351m in 2013-2014. This marks the company's first fall in profit for five years and was attributed to rising input costs and sluggish sales.

UltraTech's net sales rose to US$3.29bn for 2013-2014 from US$3.28bn in 2012-2013. For 2013-2014, the company's cement shipments grew to 41.47Mt from 40.65Mt in 2012-2013. For the quarter that ended in March 2014, UltraTech reported an 8% increase in net sales to US$954m, up from US$882m in the same period of 2013.

India: Jaiprakash Associates plans to sell US$1.66bn worth of assets by 2015 to cut its debt, after divesting assets totalling US$2.46bn in the six months that ended on 31 March 2014.

Jaiprakash Associates plans to sell a thermal power plant, a cement plant, some of its real estate assets and a part of its stake in the Yamuna Expressway. It plans to exit its cement joint venture with Steel Authority of India Ltd in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh and is in talks with Aditya Birla Group's Ultratech Cement Ltd. Jaiprakash Associates holds a 74% stake in the 2.2Mt/yr capacity cement plant.

A Jaiprakash Associates executive said that the current financial year will see more asset sales, which will ease pressure from banks to repay borrowings. Since September 2013, Jaiprakash Associates has sold assets valued at US$2.46bn, meeting its debt-reduction target for the fiscal year that ended on 31 March 31 2014.

India: UltraTech Cement Ltd is in talks to buy Jaypee's cement assets in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, for US$644m, according to anonymous sources. This comes shortly after UltraTech's purchase of Jaypee's Gujarat cement plant.

For Jaypee, subsidiary of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, the deal will be another effort towards trimming its US$8.54bn debt (as of 31 March 2013). The company sold 1.21km2 of land in Greater Noida to realty firm Gaursons India Ltd for US$241m in May 2013. Jaypee is also close to finalising the sale of two of its three operating hydroelectric projects to a consortium led by Abu Dhabi National Energy Co PJSC for at least US$1.5bn.

UltraTech's cement manufacturing capacity increased to 59Mt/yr from 54Mt/yr after it bought Jaypee's Gujarat plant. The company aims to increase its capacity to 70Mt/yr by 2015, according to Kailash Birla, senior executive president and chief financial officer of UltraTech. The Solan assets, if acquired, will add another 4Mt/yr of capacity. The grinding and blending unit and the cement plant in consideration have capacities of 2Mt/yr each.

India: UltraTech has received the green signal from the Competition Commission of India for its US$605m agreement with Jaypee Cement Corporation to purchase its Gujarat-based businesses.

UltraTech plans to acquire Jaypee's facilities, which include an integrated cement manufacturing plant at Sewagram, a captive power plant and mining leases and limestone reserves.

CCI has announced that the agreement will not affect competition in the market as companies like Lafarge and ABG Cement are initiating plants in Rajasthan and Gujarat respectively. CCI also stated that the entry of new companies counterbalances the competition market, which is affected by the merger of two similar companies, especially if the newly entered party is of ample size.

India: The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) of Odisha has issued a show cause notice to UltraTech Cement plants at Arda village, Kirmira, for violating pollution norms and asked the company to respond within 15 days as to why action should not be taken against it.

Residents of the areas surrounding the Ultratech plant have complained that white dust released by the plant is causing health hazard. Regional Officer of SPCB, Mukesh Mahalinga, said that the show cause notice was issued after an SPCB team inspected the plant and its surrounding areas on 5 – 10 December 2013. He said that if the company management fails to submit a satisfactory explanation for the non-functioning of an dust metre in the plant, action will be taken against it.

India: The Deputy Labour Commissioner of the Union government has convened a tripartite meeting with representatives from Vasavadatta Cements and UltraTech Cement, the Shramajeevigala Vedike and the Labour Department to find a solution to the on-going wage disputes at Karnataka cement plants.

Mr. Hiremath, trade union leader and president of the Shramajeevigala Vedike, claimed that the cement companies were spreading falsehoods about the implementation of wage board salaries to contract labourers. They continued to pay a negligible US$2.89/day against the cement wage board's recommendation to pay more than US$8.03/day. The companies also provided false information to the Labour Commissioner that the cement wage board's recommendations were being implemented and hid the fact that contract labourers were not receiving any other benefits.

Mr. Hiremath said that if the Labour Department failed to ensure that the cement plants implemented the wage board's recommendations, the employees would not have any alternative but to launch an indefinite protest in New Delhi.

India: Ultratech Cement plans to spend US$810m to build two cement plants in the state of Uttarakhand. The Industrial Development Department has issued a letter of intent to the Indian cement producer asking it to set up its new plants at Tuni, Dehradun district and at Someshwar, Almora district. The plant at Tuni will have a cement production capacity of 3.5Mt/yr and the plant at Someshwar will have a capacity of 2Mt/yr.