Billionaire Gautam Adani-controlled Adani Group is in advanced talks with debt-laden Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd to buy its cement unit. A deal is likely to be struck at Rs 5,000 crore.

The ports-to-power conglomerate could pay about Rs 50 billion ($606 million) for a cement grinding unit and other smaller assets, a Bloomberg report said on Monday.

The acquisition will be made by one of the cement units recently acquired by Asia’s richest person, the report said, adding an announcement was expected as early as this week.

The deal will help consolidate the Adani Group’s sudden dominance in the cement sector, which started after it bought Ambuja Cements and ACC in May from Switzerland’s Holcim Ltd, becoming India’s second-largest cement maker virtually overnight with an installed production capacity of 67.5 million tons annually.

Soon after the buyout, Adani said his group will double its cement manufacturing capacity and become the most profitable player in the country.

This potential acquisition comes amid a regulatory filing by Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) and Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd (JPVL) announcing that they would divest their cement business as well as some non-core assets to reduce debt.

The decisions by the two Jaypee group firms to sell their cement business come against the backdrop of a recent plea by the SBI to initiate insolvency proceedings against the flagship firm JAL.

“With a view to give thrust to the ongoing efforts of the company to reduce its debt, the board of directors in their meeting decided to divest the company’s significant cement business,” JAL said in a regulatory filing.

In another filing, JPVL said its board has also “decided to divest the company’s Nigrie Cement Grinding Unit”.

The unit in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh has a capacity of 4 mt per annum of which 2 million tonnes are in operation now.

Deal time

■ Adani group could pay $606 million for a cement grinding unit and other smaller assets of Jaiprakash Power Ventures

■ Acquisition to be done by one of the cement units recently acquired by Adani