ADA Group bullish on cement, airport biz

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group is planning to be among the top five cement players in the country within the next five years, besides aggressively undertaking airport upgradation and maintenance business in the country. The Group will set up cement plants with an aggregate capacity of 20 million tonnes per annum at a cost of nearly Rs 10,000 crore over the next five years, Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Infrastructure, told shareholders at the 80th AGM of the company here today.

R-Infra will implement the cement business of the Group — its foray into the manufacturing sector — with a view to optimise internal synergy, he said. “Nearly 40 per cent of the cost of manufacturing cement comes from the three key ingredients of coal, fly ash (a by-product of burning coal) and power. Given that all three are at the core of our existing portfolio, there are obvious synergies waiting to be exploited,” said the ADA chairman.

Last week, Reliance Cementation, a special purpose vehicle of the ADA group for the cement business, had signed an MoU with the Maharashtra government to set up a 5 mt integrated cement plant in Yavatmal district, with a grinding unit at Butibouri in Nagpur district, at an investment outlay of Rs 2,250 crore.