UltraTech Cement Completes Acquisition Of Over 55% Stake In The India Cements
This follows UltraTech Cement’s acquisition of 10,13,91,231 equity shares, representing 32.72% of the equity share capital of India Cements, on Dec. 24, 2024.
India Cements Ltd., on Wednesday, intimated via stock exchange filings that the stake of UltraTech Cement Ltd. in the erstwhile N. Srinivasan-run company had increased to 55.49%.
This follows UltraTech Cement’s acquisition of 10,13,91,231 equity shares, representing 32.72% of the equity share capital of India Cements, on Dec. 24, 2024, according to the exchange filing.
As a result, UltraTech's aggregate shareholding in The India Cements has increased to 17,19,55,887 equity shares. The Aditya Birla company had earlier acquired 7,05,64,656 equity shares, or a 22.77% stake, in the company.
The India Cements filing said that consequently, UltraTech has acquired “sole control” of the company and is now its promoter in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India regulations. As a result, the Chennai-based company has become a subsidiary of UltraTech.
With the conclusion of the acquisition, and due to the consequent cessation of control by the existing promoters over The India Cements, its directors had resigned on Dec. 25, 2024. These included Vice Chairman and Managing Director N. Srinivasan, Wholetime Director Rupa Gurunath, and non-independent directors Chitra Srinivasan and VM Mohan.
The cement company's board also recorded the resignation of independent directors S. Balasubramanian Adityan, Krishna Srivastava, Lakshmi Aparna Sreekumar, and Sandhya Rajan on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, The India Cements board received a letter from its former promoters, requesting a reclassification from 'promoter/promoter group' to 'public' category of the company, in accordance with Regulation 31A of the LODR Regulations. They added that together, they do not hold more than 10% of the total voting rights in the company.
Following this, on the same day, and on recommendations of the company's nomination and remuneration committee, the board considered and approved appointments of Kailash Chandra Jhanwar, Vivek Agrawal, ER Raj Narayanan, and Ashok Ramchandran as non-independent directors.
It also approved Alka Bharucha, Vikas Balia, and Sukanya Kripalu as independent directors. The company noted that shareholder approval is required for these approvals.
Shares of UltraTech Cement Ltd. closed 0.72% lower at Rs 11375.05 apiece on the BSE, compared to a 0.29% advance in the benchmark Sensex.
