Lafarge-Holcim merger not a threat to UltraTech Cement: Birla

Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Manglam Birla today said the merger of Lafarge SA and Holcim Ltd will not be a threat for UltraTech Cement, a part of the Group and the country's largest cement maker.
"It is not a threat...," Birla told reporters here today.
It could be noted that last year Paris-based Lafarge and Switzerland-based Holcim had announced a USD 40 billion merger, which will make the combined entity as the world's largest cement maker.
He also said there was no proposal to merge Century Textile's cement business with UltraTech Cement.
There were reports about Century Textile, owned by B K Birla, grandfather of K M Birla, spinning off its cement business and merging with UltraTech.

In the quarter ended March 31, 2015, Ultratech Cement had reported a 24 per cent dip in consolidated net profit at Rs 657.2 crore as against a net profit of Rs 864.83 crore in the year ago period.
The dip in profit was on account of a penalty imposed by CCI on cartelisation charges.
The company said it deposited Rs 117.55 crore on the orders of the Competition Commission in case of alleged cartelisation against cement manufacturers including Ultratech.