The Adani group does not own Ambuja Cements and ACC

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Editor's note: When the Adani group announced last September that it was acquiring Ambuja Cements and ACC for $6.4 billion, it used a special purpose vehicle called Endeavour Trade and Investment Ltd to buy the two cement companies from Switzerland’s Holcim Group. Further, as required by regulations, Endeavour would launch an open offer to acquire up to 26% of the expanded share capital of Ambuja and ACC. Endeavour Trade and Investment, based in Mauritius, would acquire Holcim’s entire stake in the two cement companies. “Holcim, through its subsidiaries, holds 63.19% in Ambuja Cements and 54.53% in ACC (of which 50.05% is held through Ambuja Cements). The value for the Holcim stake and open offer consideration for Ambuja Cements and ACC is [$10.5 billion], which makes this the largest ever acquisition by Adani, and India’s largest ever M&A transaction in the infrastructure and materials space,” said a press release on the Adani group website at the time. Rather than using a direct overseas subsidiary, the Adani group used a network of offshore entities to acquire Ambuja Cements and ACC. It has now emerged, …