Debt-ridden Jaypee Associates has sold most of its priced cement business to the Aditya Birla group company UltraTech Cement for an upwardly revised sum of Rs 16,189 crore. Here?s what analysts have to say about the deal.
The Jaypee group, which has a debt burden of about Rs 58,250 crore as of March 2016, was facing pressure from lenders, who had threatened to invoke the strategic debt restructuring (SDR) option on the company.
In June, the group defaulted on loans and other payments worth Rs 4,460 crore. On a consolidated basis, it failed to repay Rs 2,905.6 crore in principal amount to banks and another Rs 1,558.93 crore in interest payments.
Jaiprakash Associates owes over Rs 30,000 crore to a consortium of lenders led by ICICI Bank. It is owing to this that the group hiked the sale value of its 21.2 million tonne per annum (MTPA) cement assets to Rs 16,189 crore, from the Rs 15,900 crore agreed earlier in March.
UltraTech Cement has also agreed to pay an additional amount of Rs 470 crore for completion of a 4 MTPA grinding unit in Uttar Pradesh. The deal of Rs 16,189 crore is the enterprise value.
What are the managements saying?
Jaypee Group Executive Chairman Manoj Gaur said the Jaypee Group is determined to reduce its overall debt through its proactive divestment initiatives to help the group tide over these current turbulent times caused by economic slowdown in the country. Post the deal, the Jaypee Group shall retain an aggregate cement manufacturing capacity of 10.60 MTP A with plants spread across the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The group would continue to leverage its expertise in the fields of engineering and construction, real estate and project execution in a committed manner.
UltraTech said the proposed transaction is essentially a "geographic market expansion" which will lead to the company?s entry into growing markets of India, such as the Satna cluster in Uttar Pradesh (East) and Madhya Pradesh (East), Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and coastal Andhra Pradesh.
What are the analysts saying?
Post the acquisition, the upward movement in UltraTech Cement shares could be capped over the next year or so, say analysts, although they expect the deal to bear fruit for the company in the long run as the near-term outlook for the sector remains subdued.
Reflecting the broad market sentiment, UltraTech shares traded nearly 0.6 per cent lower at Rs 3,390.85 on the BSE after surging 5.5 percent in early trade. After surging for six straight trading sessions, the benchmark Sensex had taken a breather, falling around 0.3 per cent or 73.05 points down at 27,205.71.
On the other hand, JP Associates? shares overcame the sluggish market sentiment and shot up 29.4 per cent to trade at Rs 11.75 a share on the BSE.
"For UltraTech, the numbers post the acquisition will get reflected only in FY18 earnings. What we now see is that the deal will be in the range of $120/tonne for the company which is relatively a very good deal, as any greenfield project in the country today would cost anywhere in the range of $160-200 per tonne," says Rohit Natarajan, a cement analyst with IDBI Capital.
According to Natarajan, UltraTech shares may rise up to Rs 4,000 per share over the next 18 months or so. On the other hand, G Chokkalingam, Founder and Managing Director, Equinomics Research & Advisory, says the current demand scenario for cement has been region-specific, and most of the cement companies are trading above 20-30 times PE.
"A bubble seems to be developing in mid- and small-cap cement stocks, as the demand has been in low single digits while earnings have failed to match the valuation," said Chokkalingam.
(This information has been sourced from articles in the press regarding the Jaypee-UltraTech transaction).