Friday, August 3, 2012

ITALIA: Italcementi in talks to bid for India cement plant-sources



Italian cement maker Italcementi is in talks to bid for one of the two cement plants owned by India's Jaiprakash Associates in a deal worth about $500 million, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.

Jaiprakash plans to raise up to $1.6 billion from the sale of the two cement plants in western Gujarat and southern Andhra Pradesh states to help pay down part of its $8 billion debt.

Italcementi, whose Indian unit Zuari Cement is one of the leading producers in the southern region, is expected to offer about $100 per tonne for the factory in Andhra Pradesh with a capacity to produce five million tonnes of cement a year, one of the sources said.

Jaiprakash, which has interests in cement, construction, real estate and hospitality, is seeking about $150 million per tonne for the two plants that have a combined capacity of nearly 10 million tonnes, the sources said.

The sources declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to media. Italcementi, the world's fifth-largest cement producer, and Jaiprakash also declined comment.

Irish building materials group CRH and UltraTech , India's No.1 cement maker and part of the diversified Aditya Birla Group, are also in the race to buy the Jaiprakash cement plants, a source said last month.

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