Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is advising the Adani-held Ambuja Cement on its acquisition of 46.8 percent controlling stake in Orient Cement (OCL) for approximately $451 million. Khaitan & Co is representing OCL on the deal.

Another 26 percent will be acquired through a mandatory open offer to OCL’s public shareholders, at an equity value of $963 million.

The acquisition comes amid a battle for control of India’s cement market with Aditya Birla Group’s market-leading UltraTech Cement trying to fend off Adani’s Ambuja Cement and ACC brands. Both are looking at strategic deals to increase capacity and consolidate the market.

Ambuja Cement acquired Penna Cements for $1.24 billion in August, and Sanghi Industries last year, while UltraTech acquired a majority stake in India Cements for $421 million in July.

The OCL deal will help increase Adani's market share by 2 percent, said Karan Adani, director of Ambuja Cements. Acquiring the CK Birla-owned company will help Ambuja in achieving its targeted capacity of 100 million tonnes per annum in FY25. 

The CAM transaction team included managing partner Cyril Shroff, senior partner L. Viswanathan, partner Ruetveij Pandya, principal associate Abhilasha Malpani, and associate Disha Tulsyan.

Partners Paridhi Adani, Smruti Shah, Avaantika Kakkar, Ramanuj Kumar, Abhilash Pillai, Gyanendra Kumar, and Monark Gahlot also assisted on the deal.

Khaitan’s team representing OCL was led by partner Abhishek Dadoo and included counsel Gaurav Malhotra and principal associate Jayantika Khanna.

Senior partner Haigreve Khaitan, and partners Anshuman Sakle, Sanjay Sanghvi, and Shailendra Bhandare assisted on the deal.