Aditya Birla eyes stake in Jaiprakash cement business

The Aditya Birla group is emerging as the frontrunner to acquire a stake in Jaiprakash Associates Ltd's (JAL) cement business, according to local press reports.

"We have emerged as the front-runner. There were not too many serious players, except one multinational company," LiveMint quoted a senior Aditya Birla representative as saying. "The idea is to buy out a part of the stake from JP Associates' cements business. The acquisition could be as big as US$1bn."

The exercise is aimed at reducing debt and may even result in a complete exit by JAL from the third largest cement business in India.

Holcim and Lafarge have also been linked to the acquisition which reportedly involves JAL's cement plants in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, India.