Chandan Kishore Kant / Mumbai Jul 23, 2009, 00:34 IST
The southern cement major India Cements is going to considerably increase its recently acquired holding in Indo Zinc in Rajasthan. Indo Zinc holds a limestone mining lease in Rajasthan — an indispensable input for manufacturing cement.
Upon finding difficulties in going ahead with its proposed greenfield expansion of 1.5 million tonnes in the state, the company — through its subsidiary, ICL Financial Services — had acquired a 53 per cent stake in Indo Zinc at a valuation of Rs 5.3 crore.
N Srinivasan, managing director, India Cements, said: “We have implemented our Rajasthan project under Indo Zinc and the company is going to infuse a lot of money in terms of equity to take our holding in Indo Zinc significantly higher.”
The company also has kept its option to acquire the entire stake in the future. The recent acquisition has put the total valuation of Indo Zinc at Rs 10 crore.
India Cements has announced a capex plan of Rs 600 crore for the Rajasthan project, which also includes a 20-Mw captive power plant. Half of it will come in terms of equity and the rest will be from debt. The orders for equipment have already been placed and construction has begun. The company expects to operationalise the plant by the middle of next year.
India Cements has a capacity of 13.5 million tonnes per annum, which will rise to 15 million tonnes once the Rajasthan project becomes operational.
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