Cement stock surges to hit all-time high as board to consider fundraising this week

“We wish to inform you that a meeting of the board of directors of Ambuja Cements Limited is scheduled to be held on September 16, 2022 inter-alia, to consider and evaluate proposal for raising of funds by way of issue of equity shares, convertibles and / or any other eligible securities, on a rights/preferential or any other permissible mode/ and/or combination thereof as may be considered appropriate, subject to all such regulatory / statutory approvals as may be required,” the cement producer informed in an exchange filing on Tuesday.

Ambuja Cements reported a 25% fall in consolidated net profit at ₹865 crore for the June 2022 quarter due to rising fuel prices and related inflationary impacts. The company, which follows the January-December financial year, had clocked a net profit of ₹1,161 crore in the year-ago quarter. However, its revenue from operations was up 15% to ₹8,032.8 crore during the quarter as compared to ₹6,978 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

Adani Group’s open offer for a 26% stake each in Ambuja/ACC ended on September 9. With these stocks surging beyond the open offer price over the past fortnight, only 2.2% of ACC and 0.04% of Ambuja holdings were tendered by minority holders. In May this year, Adani Group announced the acquisition of Holcim’s stake in Ambuja (63.19%) and stake in ACC (4.48%; Ambuja directly owns around 50% stake in ACC).

With the acquisition process largely behind, for Ambuja, analysts believes that focus should now shift to cement business strategy going forward, pace of turnaround on efficiencies and growth outlook.

Ambuja Cements and ACC currently have a combined installed production capacity of 70 million tonnes per annum. The two companies together have 23 cement plants, 14 grinding stations, 80 ready-mix concrete plants and over 50,000 channel partners across India.

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