LH to sell two eastern Indian plants to Birla Corp

LafargeHolcim announces that it has entered into a letter agreement with Birla Corp Ltd, subject to approval by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), for the divestment of certain assets in India for an enterprise value of INR50bn (approximately US$765.8m). The proceeds from the sale of the divestment business will be used to further reduce debt.

As announced in April 2015, LafargeHolcim has received conditional clearance from the CCI for the merger. In that context, a package of assets for divestments had been agreed with the CCI which includes the Sonadih cement plant and Jojobera grinding station in eastern India currently operated by Lafarge India. The two plants have a combined cement capacity of 5.15Mta.

The transaction with Birla Corporation Limited as a purchaser will be submitted to the CCI for approval and is subject to other regulatory approvals and customary conditions.

Birla Corporation should not be mixed up with Adity Birla, which owns the much larger UltraTech Cement, which has a cement capacity of 63.8Mta, of which some 61Mta is in India.

Following the divestment, LafargeHolcim will have a cement capacity of around 68Mta in India.