Adani Group in talks to buy Jaiprakash Power's cement unit for ₹5,000 crore

The Adani Group is in advanced talks to purchase the cement division of Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd. A cement grinding plant and other minor assets could be purchased by the ports-to-power company for roughly 50 billion rupees (USD 606 million), according to one of the sources.

The agreement will support the Adani Group's efforts to maintain its sudden dominance in the cement industry, which began after it acquired Ambuja Cements Ltd. and ACC Ltd. from Holcim Ltd. of Switzerland in May, transforming it into India's second-largest cement producer almost immediately with an installed production capacity of 67.5 million tons annually.

The factory can grind 2 million tons of cement annually. It started running in Nigrie, in the Madhya Pradesh state of central India, in October 2014. According to a stock exchange filing, the board of Jaiprakash Associates has chosen to sell the business' "major" cement operations in order to reduce debt. Jaiprakash Power Ventures announced separately that its board is exploring selling the Nigrie cement grinding facility as well as other non-core assets, without mentioning any potential purchasers.

Last month, Adani Group announced intentions to invest 200 billion rupees in its recently acquired cement industry and increase its ability to produce 140 million tons of cement over the course of five years.