Lafarge-Nirma Deal Valuation in Line With Recent Transactions

Lafarge deal a bargain for Nirma? Valuations are in line with similar deals in the past.

A bulldozer dumps sand in a truck at a Lafarge quarry (Photographer: Fabrice Dimier/Bloomberg)

Nirma Ltd. emerged as the winner of the highly sought-after Indian cement assets of LafargeHolcim Ltd. While the sale of LafargeHolcim’s India business was aimed at meeting the competition regulator’s rules, other recent deals, like those between Ultratech Cement Ltd.-JP Associates Ltd. and Birla Corporation Ltd.-Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., was to pare debt.

Deal Valuation

The LafargeHolcim-Nirma deal was done at an enterprise of approximately $1.4 billion, which translates into an enterprise per tonne of Rs 8,545.5 for the total sale capacity of LafargeHolcim’s three Indian plants of 11 million tonnes per annum.

The enterprise per tonne is broadly in line with the recent deals in the cement sector, Ashish Jain, an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley, wrote in his July 11 note to clients.

Recent Cement Deals in India

1) Ultratech Cement – JP Associates (July 2016)

  • Enterprise : Rs 16,189 crore
  • Acquired capacity: 21.20 MTPA
  • EV per tonne: Rs 7,636.3

2) Birla Corporation – Reliance Infrastructure (February 2016)

  • Enterprise : Rs 4,800 crore
  • Acquired capacity: 5.5 MTPA
  • EV per tonne: Rs 8,727.3

3) Birla Corporation Lafarge India deal that did not go through (August 2015)

  • Enterprise : Rs 5,000 crore
  • Capacity: 5.15 MTPA
  • EV per tonne: Rs 9,708.7
Get live Stock market updates, Business news, Today’s latest news, Trending stories, and Videos on NDTV Profit.
GET REGULAR UPDATES