Sajjan Jindal’s JSW makes $7bn bid for Holcim’s India businesses

Chair of country’s biggest steelmaker says Narendra Modi supported ‘nationalistic’ companies

Indian industrialist Sajjan Jindal’s steel-to-energy conglomerate JSW Group will make a $7bn bid for Holcim’s India subsidiaries as the Swiss cement group seeks to divest from international assets.

Jindal said in an interview that JSW would offer $4.5bn in its own equity and $2.5bn from undisclosed private equity partners for Holcim’s Indian assets Ambuja Cement and ACC.

The JSW chair said the acquisition of 63 per cent of Ambuja would be a “game-changer”.

If the deal is successful, it would increase JSW’s market share of the Indian cement market from about 3 per cent to 16 per cent, said analysts.

“This M&A opportunity is a one in a decade opportunity,” said Sumangal Nevatia, senior vice-president for metals, mining and cement at Kotak Securities.

Jindal is reportedly up against other powerful Indian conglomerates including the Birla and Adani families for Ambuja, which controls 13 per cent of the Indian market, Nevatia said, with annual production of 26mn tonnes in 2021.

Ambuja’s shares have risen 14 per cent over the past month to Rs370.43 ($4.78). Holcim declined to comment.

JSW’s attempt to expand its cement business comes as the steel company, India’s biggest by stock market capitalisation with revenues last year of $9.4bn, is working to acquire coal mines abroad to offset supply disruptions and high commodity costs.

Surging post-pandemic demand and the Ukraine war have pushed prices for the steel making commodity to record highs, with Australian coking coal hitting $590 a tonne in March, according to data provider CoalMint.

“The conflict is affecting the commodity prices globally and that’s giving a big concern,” Jindal said. “A lot of people are deferring their projects because they’re all feeling the cost has gone up nearly 40, 50 per cent.”

For More Related News : Usha Martin Limited

Deaths, Protests & Once-Powerful Rajapaksa Clan on Back Foot

The sky is completely overcast. But the Earth below is burning. Quite literally. The tear-drop-shaped Indian Ocean island nation is rapidly descending into chaos.

Sri Lanka is going through its worst-ever crisis in its modern history; much worse than the 30-year-long Tamil Eelam civil war, Ultra Marxist Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP)-led terrorism and the tsunami of 2004. A small nation of 22 million people has never seen a public uprising of this magnitude and proportions. The entire country seems to have risen up against the ruling Rajapaksa clan for their failure to end the economic crisis.

After dillydallying for almost two months, the Prime Minister and head of the clan — Mahinda Rajapaksa — finally resigned on Monday afternoon. Apparently, his younger brother and the infamous President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, sacrificed him to save himself.

Mahinda, who could have saved his reputation earned over 50 years and the mass following by leaving the office gracefully, faltered by misreading the prevailing situation. He has disgraced himself and has almost hit the nails on the coffins of his family’s future politics. Gotabaya, the only Rajapaksa who is still clinging to power, is increasingly looking like a totally helpless leader and the public is baying for his blood.

Check Here : https://www.news18.com/news/world/deaths-protests-once-powerful-rajapaksa-clan-on-back-foot-in-downward-spiral-sri-lanka-faces-its-worst-crisis-in-modern-history-5143579.html

"To Buy Time": Trinamool's Mahua Moitra Shreds Centre's New Plan On Sedition Law

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, one of the petitioners who called for the colonial-era sedition law to be scrapped, told NDTV today that the government's sudden move to decide on a review of the law is "just a ploy to buy time". The matter, she said, deserves to be referred to a seven-judge bench.

"This is partly the same thing they did with the marital rape issue in Delhi High Court. The (sedition) law has been there was 150 years. They have been in power for nearly eight years. If they wanted to do something, they (could have)… it is that now they realise there is an actual possibility of this (law) being examined by a larger bench, a seven judge bench… so they do this to buy time," she told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

"This is basically to say 'stay off, we will do what we want to do', and they will sit on it for years and years," she added.

The Centre today told the Supreme Court -- where the sedition law has been challenged by Ms Moitra and several other petitioners -- that it has decided to review the legislation, two days after firmly defending the law.

Check Here : https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/to-by-time-trinamools-mahua-moitra-shreds-centres-new-plan-on-sedition-law-2960565