Indian billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla’s UltraTech Cement will acquire a 23 per cent stake in India Cements for about $226 million, as the conglomerate looks to counter Adani Group’s buying spree amid an intensifying battle to dominate India’s cement sector.
Sector leader UltraTech will pay as much as 267 Indian rupees ($3.19) a share to purchase 70.6 million shares of the Chennai-based India Cements, the Birla group company said in an exchange filing on Thursday.
“This non-controlling financial investment constitutes around 23 per cent” stake in the cement maker, the filing added.
The transaction will make the Aditya Birla Group the second-largest shareholder in India Cements, trailing only the founders, who own 28.5 per cent.
The stake gives UltraTech a solid foothold in a cement maker that’s already a sizeable player in southern India – a geography where Gautam Adani’s conglomerate recently expanded its presence.
Mr Adani’s Ambuja Cements announced the acquisition of Penna Cement Industries in a $1.2 billion deal earlier this month.
ICRA, the local arm of Moody’s, said that it “expects M&A deals to continue, given the aggressive growth plans of the large incumbent players who want to maintain their market share”.
An asset block of 28 million tonnes is in the pipeline for acquisition in India, the note added.
Adani Group became India’s second-largest cement maker in 2022 after buying Ambuja and ACC and has continued buying smaller firms since.
UltraTech, the country's biggest cement maker, has an annual capacity of 152.7 million tonnes and is aiming for 200 million tonnes by March 2027.
Adani Group, on the other hand, has a capacity of 89 million tonnes and is targeting 140 million tonnes by 2028.
Cement is a crucial raw material in all infrastructure projects, making it a key resource for achieving Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal to modernise the world’s most populous country and meet the growing demand for homes.
In April, UltraTech said it would buy India Cements’ grinding unit for 3.15 billion rupees.
Mr Birla is also investing $50 million to build a new chemical plant in Beaumont, Texas, the heart of the US oil-refining region, as his conglomerate expands its North American footprint.
The project will involve a “state-of-the-art advanced materials site” spread across 35 acres in Beaumont. Texas is home to some of the country’s biggest refineries and petrochemical complexes.
The plant will house research-and-development complexes and produce epoxies.
Aditya Birla Group claims it is the largest Indian investor in the US, with more than $15 billion in assets in the country.
Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch’s triplex penthouse in New York City has lowered its asking price yet again.
After listing for $62 million in 2022, the roughly 7,000-square-foot apartment in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighbourhood has been on and off the market with increasingly diminishing price tags.
It was offered in April for $38.5 million. Now, the News Corp chairman emeritus has lopped off another $10 million – with its $28.5 million price now less than half of the initial ask.
“My client is a realist, and he is very astute about how markets function,” said Kyle Blackmon, the head of luxury sales at Compass, who represents the property.
Of the most recent drop, he said: “We ultimately believe that such a significant reduction – 26 per cent – increases the probability of competitive bidding.”
The apartment has been toured by what Mr Blackmon claimed are 12 qualified buyers in the last two months, “five of which are billionaires”.
“We have a number of those qualified purchasers circling the property.”
The penthouse spans the building’s 58th, 59th and 60th floors, and has five bedrooms and 6.5 baths. There’s a private, internal lift, along with a circular staircase.
A decade ago, Mr Murdoch reportedly paid about $57.9 million for the apartment, along with a smaller 3,300-square-foot unit in the same building.
Bernard Arnault
French billionaire Bernard Arnault, Europe's richest man and the chairman of LVMH, has bought a stake in smaller luxury rival Richemont, Bloomberg reported.
The exact size of the shareholding in the owner of Cartier jewellery is unclear.
The report said the investment was small and part of a broader Arnault family-owned portfolio of investments in publicly listed companies.
Paris-based LVMH, whose brands include Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior fashion houses and watchmakers Hublot and Tag Heuer, has previously bought stakes in rivals.
The world's biggest luxury company in 2010 revealed it had amassed a stake in Birkin bag maker Hermes.
Hermes' family owners reacted by binding their holdings, and LVMH eventually relinquished its stake in 2014.
Richemont could also prove a hard target to take over, if that is Mr Arnault's intention.
The company, which also owns Swiss watchmakers IWC, Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre, is controlled by chairman Johan Rupert through a combination of two categories of shares that give him 51 per cent of the voting rights.
Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Jon Cox noted Mr Arnault's admiration of Richemont's jewellery businesses.
“Arnault has made no secret that he thinks Richemont’s Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels are two world-class brands and I am sure LVMH is interested and has the financial resources to do a deal,” Mr Cox said.
“However, Richemont's Johann Rupert has repeatedly said the company is not for sale and he has no interest in any sort of tie-up.”
Mr Arnault has been on a charm offensive, saying in January that Mr Rupert was an “outstanding leader” and that he did not want to “upset his strategy”.
He said: “I understand he wants to remain independent. I find that very good. If he wants support to maintain his independence, I'll be there.”
Last month, Richemont unveiled a management overhaul, promoting Nicolas Bos, the head of its Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery brand, to become group chief executive.
Still, Mr Rupert said he was not reducing his role in the company he created.
With inputs from Bloomberg and Reuters
The%20specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Fast%20X
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Louis%20Leterrier%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Vin%20Diesel%2C%20Michelle%20Rodriguez%2C%20Jason%20Statham%2C%20Tyrese%20Gibson%2C%20Ludacris%2C%20Jason%20Momoa%2C%20John%20Cena%2C%20Jordana%20Brewster%2C%20Nathalie%20Emmanuel%2C%20Sung%20Kang%2C%20Brie%20Larson%2C%20Helen%20Mirren%20and%20Charlize%20Theron%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
FIXTURES
New Zealand v France, second Test
Saturday, 12.35pm (UAE)
Auckland, New Zealand
South Africa v Wales
Sunday, 12.40am (UAE), San Juan, Argentina
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Aya Iskandarani
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tewellah by Nawal Zoghbi is out now.
Company profile
Company name: Dharma
Date started: 2018
Founders: Charaf El Mansouri, Nisma Benani, Leah Howe
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: TravelTech
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investors: Convivialite Ventures, BY Partners, Shorooq Partners, L& Ventures, Flat6Labs
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company%20profile
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The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
%20Ramez%20Gab%20Min%20El%20Akher
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECreator%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ramez%20Galal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ramez%20Galal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStreaming%20on%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMBC%20Shahid%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Analysis
Maros Sefcovic is juggling multiple international trade agreement files, but his message was clear when he spoke to The National on Wednesday.
The EU-UAE bilateral trade deal will be finalised soon, he said. It is in everyone’s interests to do so. Both sides want to move quickly and are in alignment. He said the UAE is a very important partner for the EU. It’s full speed ahead - and with some lofty ambitions - on the road to a free trade agreement.
We also talked about US-EU tariffs. He answered that both sides need to talk more and more often, but he is prepared to defend Europe's position and said diplomacy should be a guiding principle through the current moment.
The specs
Engine 60kwh FWD
Battery Rimac 120kwh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power 204hp Torque 360Nm
Price, base / as tested Dh174,500
Scoreline
Chelsea 1
Azpilicueta (36')
West Ham United 1
Hernandez (73')
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The biog
Name: Younis Al Balooshi
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn
Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design
