Century Cement Arm Up For Sale

The B K Birla group patriarch may put on the block the 1.5 million tonne Manikgarh Cement unit in Maharashtra. The plant belongs to Century Textiles & Industries, part of his Rs 1,937 crore flagship.

Merchant banking sources indicate that Basant Kumar Birla is at present in an advanced stage of negotiations with the UK-based cement transnational Blue Circle to dispose of the unit.

They added that the deal with Blue Circle could be sealed by May-end, although he had been approached by at least another multinational.

The move is believed to be closely linked to the inheritance plan for Basant Kumar's grandson, Kumar Mangalam, who runs India's third largest cement company, Grasim Industries.

 

But the younger Birla is reportedly not keen on expanding his cement operations in the western region due to the depressed conditions and falling margins.

The Manikgarh unit caters almost entirely for Maharashtra and parts of southern Gujarat.

Also, the Gujarat-based Shree Digvijay Cement, which now has to be referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), could be one of the reasons for Kumar Birla's indifference.

However, D K Agarwal, executive president (corporate finance) of Century Textiles refused to comment on Basant Kumar Birla's move, saying,"It is inappropriate for me to comment on this issue at this stage."

The offices of B K Birla informed that he was at present "out of the country" with B L Jain, executive director, and N M Jain, head of Manikgarh Cement and, hence, not available for comment. Aditya Birla group officials chose not to comment on this issue.

On the block

The move favours Kumar Mangalam Birla as:

* He is not keen on concentrating on the western region

* He has already suffered huge losses in Shree Digvijay Cement in Gujarat

* The Manikgarh unit caters only for Maharashtra and southern Gujarat

* He has cement units in UP and Rajasthan, which cater for the northern belt, and in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.