Deadline day reached for Lafarge India bids

Today (4 July) sees the passing of the deadline by which bidders must submit binding offers for Lafarge India's assets. According to press sources, five companies – three domestic and two foreign – are in the running for the facilities, which include production capacity of 11Mta.

The five firms submitting their bids today are: Cemex, Anhui Conch, JSW Cement, Piramal Enterprises and the Nirma Group. Of the five, only JSW Cement has a significant presence in the Indian market: the company has 6.4Mta of capacity, which it hopes to increase to 20Mta by 2020.

Nirma has 2.4Mta of capacity in Rajasthan and Piramal is planning to enter the sector regardless of the outcome of this bidding process.

The six plants included in the sale are located in the north and east of the country. The Economic Times reports that bids are likley to be in the region of US$1.2-1.5bn. In an earlier bidding stage, Anhui Conch put forward the highest offer, valuing the assets at INR95bn (US$1.4bn).