Holcim CEO Jan Jenisch on Monday indicated that the Adani group will be liable for anti-trust fines against Ambuja Cements and ACC which are being litigated in the Supreme Court.

Speaking at an concall with analysts on Monday, Jenisch said Holcim is selling stake in the holding company (that has stakes in both the firms) with “no further indemnification from our side’’ and that it is a straight-forward sale of shares.

In 2016, the Competition Commission of India had imposed more than Rs 6,700 crore penalty on 11 cement companies, including ACC and Ambuja Cements and others.

Acquisition goal

Holcim will use cash raised from the sale of its Indian business for acquisitions focused on building products and solutions, Jenisch said, with the cement maker currently eyeing 10 potential targets.

Over the last 15 months Holcim has spent 5 billion Swiss francs ($4.99 billion) on a string of companies outside the cement market as it pivots towards building products like roofing and mortars.

“We hope we can keep a similar pace and put this money to work very fast,” Jenisch told reporters.

The fair trade regulator has also directed all the entities to “cease and desist” from indulging in any activity relating to agreement, understanding or arrangement on prices, production and supply of cement in the market. It had imposed a fine of Rs 1,147.59 crore on ACC and nearly Rs 1164 crore on Ambuja Cements.

Meanwhile, shares of both Ambuja Cements and ACC rallied at the bourses on the news. While the Ambuja Cements scrip settled higher by 2.59 per cent at Rs 368.10, the ACC counter rallied by 3.84 per cent to Rs 2194.90.

Adani group shares also attracted buying and they settled with gains of up to 5.10 per cent.

Holcim said in a presentation that while the deal requires approval from the CCI, the expected closing date for the deal is the second half of 2022. While Ambuja Cements has a cement grinding capacity of 35 million tonnes, it also has 14 cement manufacturing sites across the country and around 4700 employees. On the other hand, ACC has nearly the same cement grinding capacity spread across 17 manufacturing sites, 78 ready-mix concrete plants. The company has around 6000 employees on its rolls.

(With inputs from Reuters)