In a bid to reduce its debt pile, Jaiprakash Associates is planning to sell its Gujarat-based cement units for Rs 4,000 crore. The company’s consolidated debt stood at Rs 53,174 crore as of March 2011. Its standalone debt, as of September 2012, was Rs 19,549 crore.
Earlier, the company was in talks with the Birlas to sell the cement units. However, as its expected valuation of $170 a tonne was very high, it failed to seal the deal.
Jaiprakash Associates, in last year, divested its cement units in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh into a separate company, Jaypee Cement, in order to monetize a part of its investments to help the parent company reduce its debt. Jaypee group’s cement division currently operates modern, computerized process control cement plants with an aggregate capacity of 21.3 MTPA.
