Ambuja Cements, part of the Adani Group, has agreed to acquire Orient Cement in a deal valued at 81 billion rupees ($963 million), as Gautam Adani continues to snap up makers of the key raw material needed for India’s infrastructure push.
Ambuja will acquire 46.8 per cent shares of Orient Cement from its current founders and certain public shareholders, the company said in an exchange filing on October 22. The transaction will be fully funded by internal accruals.
It will also make an open offer for a 26 per cent stake in Orient at 395.40 rupees a share, according to the filing.
The latest acquisition adds 16.6 million tonnes of annual cement capacity for the ports-to-power conglomerate and shows an escalating asset race between Asia’s second-richest person and the sector leader, UltraTech Cement, led by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla.
More than half a dozen cement deals have been clinched by the Adani Group and UltraTech in two years and many smaller players are still up for grabs. UltraTech had bought a controlling stake in India Cements in July.
Orient’s “strategic locations, high-quality limestone reserves and requisite statutory approvals present an opportunity to increase cement capacity in the near term”, Karan Adani, director of Ambuja Cements and Mr Adani’s son, said in the filing.
Battle lines are being drawn in India’s cement space as Adani Group’s buyout spree rapidly adds to its 79 million tonnes capacity with a target of 140 million tonnes by 2028. UltraTech, which has a current capacity of 150 million tonnes, is looking to scale up to 200 million tonnes by March 2027.
Both the billionaires are seeking to dominate supplies of a building material that is critical to sustaining India’s drive to overhaul its infrastructure.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission to build everything from airports and power facilities to roads, bridges and tunnels will spur India’s infrastructure investment to 15 trillion rupees by March 2026, according to Crisil Ratings.
Adani Group’s big bang entry in 2022 upended the local pecking order – it became the second-biggest cement maker overnight with the acquisition of Ambuja and ACC – but it spent much of 2023 firefighting, after Hindenburg Research’s scathing report.
Mr Adani’s empire only got back to its expansionist ways fully this year. As part of this revived growth spree, it has been acquiring cement makers, stoking a turf war with the entrenched incumbent.
The Adani Group has been scouting for more cement assets to expand its reach, procure key raw material – limestone reserves – and has a war chest of about $4.5 billion for acquisitions over the next two years, Bloomberg News reported in July.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump has rejoined the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the first time since August 6 as his media start-up’s stock surges alongside his odds in political betting markets.
The former US president’s fortune rose to $6.72 billion on October 24, ranking him 467th on the list of the world’s 500 richest people.
Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, has nearly tripled in value since late September, boosting his paper wealth.
Trump Media has been trading as a proxy for betting on the likelihood that Mr Trump will be the next US president. The odds that Mr Trump will win the November 5 election have spiked in recent weeks on betting sites Polymarket and PredictIt.
Mr Trump’s net worth is the highest it’s been since July 22, the day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, which led to Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic nominee.
Mukesh Ambani
Jio Financial Services, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has held talks with Allianz to set up an insurance partnership in India as the German company seeks to scrap two existing joint ventures in the country, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
Allianz and Jio Financial are looking to establish a general insurance and a life insurance company in India, the sources said. The discussions are in early stages, they added.
Munich-based Allianz has indicated to its current partner Bajaj Finserv that it’s “actively considering an exit” from the ventures, according to a statement from Bajaj on October 22 after Bloomberg News reported the planned split.
Allianz “has indicated that it remains committed to the Indian insurance market”, according to the statement. The break-up centres around a dispute over the direction of the partnership, sources said.
An official for Jio Financial said the company is unable to comment on speculation. “If and when there are any material developments with respect to the company, we will continue to make necessary disclosures in accordance with our obligations, as we always have,” the official added.
Allianz doesn’t comment on market rumours, a Munich-based official said.
Jio Financial, helmed by veteran banker KV Kamath, already runs a shadow bank and an insurance brokerage and has joined forces with BlackRock to start an asset management business. Setting up insurance operations will help further the Ambani unit’s ambition of becoming a financial services behemoth.
India’s insurance penetration rate – the ratio of premiums to gross domestic product – is less than half that of countries such as South Africa and Canada, implying strong growth prospects for the sector, according to insurance regulator data.
Steve Schwarzman
Blackstone chief executive Steve Schwarzman said the US is likely to avoid a recession regardless of who wins the presidential election, as both candidates have policy proposals that appeal to growth.
“I don’t see a recession risk because the economy is pretty strong and both the candidates keep mentioning a lot of stimulative policies,” the billionaire private equity chief told Bloomberg in Tokyo on Wednesday.
The upcoming US election, just two weeks away, is set to be one of the most impactful events for global markets and economies this year going into next.
Mr Schwarzman said in May that he would raise money for Donald Trump’s campaign, reversing his earlier call for a “new generation” of Republican leaders.
Policies the candidates have put forth would be consequential for businesses, including Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, he said.
Mr Schwarzman said historically Democrats have taken a more “vigorous approach” to regulation, and that could impact some buying and selling for the private equity industry. Many policy proposals around the economy and taxes would be up to Congress to enact and not the president, he added.
In May, when Mr Schwarzman said he was supporting Mr Trump, he cited his concern that US economic, immigration and foreign policies were going in the “wrong direction”.
Mr Schwarzman said he sees an improving environment for making deals and exiting investments as interest rates are likely to continue to fall in the US.
“It’s really about interest rates and economic growth,” he said. “Interest rates will continue to go down and that’ll provide an impetus of more transactions both on the buy and the sell.”
Compiled from Bloomberg
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Visa changes give families fresh hope
Foreign workers can sponsor family members based solely on their income
Male residents employed in the UAE can sponsor immediate family members, such as wife and children, subject to conditions that include a minimum salary of Dh 4,000 or Dh 3,000 plus accommodation.
Attested original marriage certificate, birth certificate of the child, ejari or rental contract, labour contract, salary certificate must be submitted to the government authorised typing centre to complete the sponsorship process
In Abu Dhabi, a woman can sponsor her husband and children if she holds a residence permit stating she is an engineer, teacher, doctor, nurse or any profession related to the medical sector and her monthly salary is at least Dh 10,000 or Dh 8,000 plus accommodation.
In Dubai, if a woman is not employed in the above categories she can get approval to sponsor her family if her monthly salary is more than Dh 10,000 and with a special permission from the Department of Naturalization and Residency Dubai.
To sponsor parents, a worker should earn Dh20,000 or Dh19,000 a month, plus a two-bedroom accommodation
HOW TO WATCH
Facebook: TheNationalNews
Twitter: @thenationalnews
Instagram: @thenationalnews.com
TikTok: @thenationalnews
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
Specs
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more from Janine di Giovanni
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
RESULT
Shabab Al Ahli Dubai 0 Al Ain 6
Al Ain: Caio (5', 73'), El Shahat (10'), Berg (65'), Khalil (83'), Al Ahbabi (90' 2)
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
