Aditya Birla Group now owns Emirates Cement
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Mashiur Rahaman
Top Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla Group has recently acquired the Dubai-based ETA Star Cement Company that owns the Emirates Cement in Bangladesh.
The group, through its wholly-owned subsidiary UltraTech Cement Middle East Investments, has acquired Dubai-based ETA Star Cement which has operations in the UAE and Bahrain.
Leading Indian news daily, the Hindu, broke the report but did not elaborate on the transaction.
The Aditya Birla Group is a US$ 29 billion conglomerate, which gets most of its revenues from outside India. It has stakes in viscose staple fibre, non-ferrous metals, cement, viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, retail, fertilizers, chemicals, insulators, financial services, telecoms and IT services.
Set up in 2003 at the height of influx of Gulf investment in Bangladesh, Emirates cement has half a million tonnes per annum grinding capacity cement plant on the bank of the Shitalakhhya river.
The company reportedly invested 27 million US dollar into the state-of-the-art plant but could never break into the top five companies in Bangladesh's 12 million tonnes and yearly double-digit growth cement market.
Although cement has been one of the fastest growing industrial sectors in the country with most of the leading players expanding capacities in the past five years, Emirates continued to fare modestly in the market.
"There are already half a dozen multinational cement companies present in Bangladesh. Birla Group will just be another addition," Mostafa Kamal, president of Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association, said.
Four of the world's top five cement companies -- Lafarge, Heidelberg, Cemex and Holcim -- have set up plants in Bangladesh. But they face stiff competition from their local rivals.
Top Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla Group has recently acquired the Dubai-based ETA Star Cement Company that owns the Emirates Cement in Bangladesh.
The group, through its wholly-owned subsidiary UltraTech Cement Middle East Investments, has acquired Dubai-based ETA Star Cement which has operations in the UAE and Bahrain.
Leading Indian news daily, the Hindu, broke the report but did not elaborate on the transaction.
The Aditya Birla Group is a US$ 29 billion conglomerate, which gets most of its revenues from outside India. It has stakes in viscose staple fibre, non-ferrous metals, cement, viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, retail, fertilizers, chemicals, insulators, financial services, telecoms and IT services.
Set up in 2003 at the height of influx of Gulf investment in Bangladesh, Emirates cement has half a million tonnes per annum grinding capacity cement plant on the bank of the Shitalakhhya river.
The company reportedly invested 27 million US dollar into the state-of-the-art plant but could never break into the top five companies in Bangladesh's 12 million tonnes and yearly double-digit growth cement market.
Although cement has been one of the fastest growing industrial sectors in the country with most of the leading players expanding capacities in the past five years, Emirates continued to fare modestly in the market.
"There are already half a dozen multinational cement companies present in Bangladesh. Birla Group will just be another addition," Mostafa Kamal, president of Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association, said.
Four of the world's top five cement companies -- Lafarge, Heidelberg, Cemex and Holcim -- have set up plants in Bangladesh. But they face stiff competition from their local rivals.