RInfra said to seek Rs 5,000 crore for cement units

Deal expected to be announced this week

Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure is seeking to sell its cement assets for an enterprise value of about Rs 5,000 crore ($757 million) in a deal expected to be announced by the year-end, people familiar with the matter said.

The company is in talks with cement makers and private equity firms including Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. Reliance expects to get Rs 2,600 crore from the sale, with the buyer taking over Rs 2,400 crore of debt, one of the people said. Reliance Infrastructure shares rose the most this month.

Ambani's group has been announcing deals to sell assets across its companies to pare debt and expand defense manufacturing, its newest business. Reliance Communications this month said it's selling phone towers and property in Mumbai. The yield on Reliance Communications' 2020 dollar bonds slumped 62 basis points this quarter and its shares jumped 26 per cent.

Reliance Infrastructure has shortlisted seven potential buyers and seeks to complete the sale by December 31, the company said in an e-mail response to queries. The company will sell cement plants with an annual capacity of 5.6 million tonnes, according to the e-mail. Spokesmen for Carlyle and Blackstone declined to comment.

The assets are in Reliance Cement Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure that had a total debt of about Rs 25,800 crore on consolidated basis, data compiled by Bloomberg show. It has cement plants in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, according to information on its website.

Shares of Reliance Infrastructure climbed 3.7 per cent to Rs 474.65 as of 12:03 pm in Mumbai, set for the highest closing level since March.

In November, Reliance Infrastructure said it was selling a 49 percent stake in its power transmission business in Mumbai to Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board.