India’s Ambuja Cements touches record high on Adani deal

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Shares of India’s Ambuja Cements jumped over 10% to an all-time high on Monday, as the company said it would raise 200 billion Indian rupees ($2.51 billion) through an issue of convertible warrants to an Adani Group company.

On Friday, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, took over as chairman of the company, following the Adani Group’s takeover.

“There was a significant infusion of 200 billion rupees into the business. And, ambition being shown to become the largest and the most efficient player by 2030,” said Vikram Kasat, head advisory at Prabhudas Lilladher.

Jefferies upgraded its rating on Ambuja to “buy” and set the target price at 620 rupees, while Investec raised the target price to 752 rupees.

Analysts at Jefferies said they now value Ambuja’s consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), one notch higher than the target multiple for rival UltraTech Cement Ltd.

Gautam Adani, with a net worth of $154 billion, is currently ranked second-richest in the world, behind Elon Musk, according to Forbes.

On Saturday, Adani said the company expected to raise the production capacity to 140 million tonnes by 2027 from 70 million tonnes currently.

The Adani group ventured into cement-making operations earlier this year with its $10.5 billion acquisition of Holcim AG’s cement businesses in India – Ambuja Cements Ltd and ACC Ltd.

Shares of ACC also rose after Adani’s son Karan was made chairman of the board.

($1 = 79.6200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Neha Arora)

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