India: Dalmia Bharat and Shree Cement to battle for Binani Industries

Dalmia Bharat and Shree Cement are among at least three companies that have expressed interest in buying Binani Industries’ subsidiary Binani Cement's 6.25Mta cement manufacturing capacity in India, according to Moneycontrol.

"Dalmia Bharat and Shree Cement are interested. There's one MNC [multinational cement company] as well that has a large presence in India which is interested in buying," an official familiar with the development said.

Both Dalmia Bharat and Shree Cement have used the inorganic route in the past to grow their capacities – Dalmia buying OCL India and Shree buying a grinding unit of Jaiprakash Associates.

The Binani assets are both located in the district of Rajasthan at Sikar and Sirohi.

Binani Cement ended 2015-16 (April-March) with a net loss of INR28,890m (US$428m). This followed the 2014-15 net loss of INR104,880m (US$1.55bn). It had a net cash ouflow of INR62,110m in 2015-16.