Aditya Birla group is evaluating a possible buyout of the South Africa operations of France's Lafarge SA, the world's largest cement company, the Business Standard newspaper reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.
The $35 billion telecoms-to-cement conglomerate, whose Ultratech Ltd is India's biggest cement producer, is conducting initial assessment for a possible bid for the Lafarge unit, the report said.
The enterprise value, which comprises both equity and debt, of Lafarge's South African arm, may be close to $800-900 million, the report said, quoting the sources.
Lafarge South Africa Holding has an annual cement capacity of over three million tonnes and operates 20 quarries and 55 ready-mix concrete plants. Lafarge is seeking 700-800 million euros for the unit, a report said last month.
A spokeswoman for the Aditya Birla Group, which also owns Hindalco Industries, India's top aluminium producer, and telecoms provider Idea Cellular, declined to comment on the report.
The group, one of the world's ten biggest cement producers, operates across 36 countries and has recently considered bids for overseas coal assets.
Lafarge was not reachable for comment by Reuters. Another Indian company Shree Cement is also believed to have shown interest in the asset, the report said.
"We have initially shown some interest in the project but we would not like to comment on the present status," an unnamed senior group official was reported as saying by the newspaper.