Axis MF, GQG Partners, others buy stake in Ambuja Cements worth ₹4,250 crore

Rajiv Jain-backed GQG Partners purchased more than 4.39 crore shares, amounting to a 1.78 per cent stake in Ambuja Cements through bulk and block deals in two separate transactions.

The shares were bought at an average price of ₹625.50 apiece, taking the combined deal value to ₹2,746.79 crore.

Post-stake buy, Fort Lauderdale-based asset management firm GQG Partners increased its stake in Ambuja Cements to 3.13 per cent from 1.35 per cent.

According to the block deal data available on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Holderind Investments Ltd, promoter in Ambuja Cements, sold 6.79 crore shares, amounting to a 2.8 per cent stake in the company.

The shares were offloaded at an average price of ₹625.50 apiece, taking the transaction value to ₹4,250.64 crore.

After the stake sale, Holderind Investments’ shareholding in Ambuja Cements has declined to 48.1 per cent from 50.90 per cent. Also, the combined stake of promoters of Ambuja Cements has reduced to 67.53 per cent from 70.33 per cent.

These shares were picked up by Axis Mutual Fund (MF), Baroda BNP Paribas MF, ICICI Prudential MF, Invesco MF, Mirae Asset MF, Canara HSBC Life Insurance Company, SBI Life Insurance, and National Pension System (NPS) Trust.

Also, US-based Morgan Stanley and The Vanguard Group as well as Norway government’s pension fund were among the buyers of Ambuja Cements’ shares.

Billionaire Gautam Adani-led promoter group holds shares worth USD 125 billion across the 10 listed companies of the conglomerate.

Sources said the adjustments in the holdings are done on a regular basis to keep the promoters’ interest at a desired level.

The equity adjustments typically range from 0.5 per cent to 3 per cent.

The stake sale in Ambuja Cement is part of that and is not linked to any debt reduction, they said.

Ambuja is one of the two firms that Adani bought in 2022 from Holcim Ltd to emerge as India’s second-largest cement maker overnight.

Shares of Ambuja Cements rose 0.51 per cent to close at ₹635 apiece on the NSE on Friday.

On Monday, the conglomerate said it has enough cash to cover more than 30 months of debt payments and that its businesses are firing on all cylinders.

Cash balance at the group accounted for 24.8 per cent of gross debt of ₹2.41 lakh crore as of the end of June, up from 17.7 per cent a year earlier, it had said in a statement.

It had said that “24.77 per cent of gross debt is in the form of cash balances providing liquidity to cover 30 months of debt servicing”.

The conglomerate saw June quarter pre-tax profit surge 33 per cent on the back of strong performance by the core infrastructure business as also emerging businesses ranging from solar and wind manufacturing to airports.

“EBITDA (in April-June) surged 32.87 per cent year-on-year to reach ₹22,570 crore, resulting in a trailing twelve-month (TTM) EBITDA of ₹79,180 crore, marking a 45.13 per cent increase over the corresponding TTM of the previous year,” the group said.

The group’s net profit jumped over 50 per cent to ₹10,279 crore in the April-June period of the current fiscal year.