Orient Cement To Close Purchase Of JP Associates’ Cement Assets This Year

Orient Cement Ltd. hopes to complete the acquisition of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd.’s cement assets by Nov.-Dec. this year, Managing Director DD Khetrapal told BloombergQuint in an interview.

“It is completely dependent on the vendors fulfilling the conditions to the deal which includes approvals from joint venture partners and the Madhya Pradesh government. We believe they are in a fairly advanced stage of getting those approvals,” he said.

The company will raise Rs 1,400 crore through a mix of debt and equity to fund the deal.

For the July-September quarter, Orient Cement’s operating profit surged 4.5 times year-on-year aided by 11 percent volume growth and lower finance cost. Besides, increased efficiency at its newly commissioned plant at Chittapur helped offset the increase in power and fuel cost, Khetrapal added. The company is targeting a volume growth of 3.3 million tonnes in second half of the financial year.

Watch the full conversation here: