KKR exits India's Dalmia Bharat for $238m

According to market data, the firm offloaded 7.5 million shares at an average price of INR2,045 in a series of open market transactions on April 21, representing a discount to the previous day’s closing price of INR2,090. Buyers included Franklin Templeton Investment Funds, Birla Mutual Fund, and California-based Smallcap World Fund.

KKR acquired the DBL shares last year when it sold its stake in Dalmia Cement Bharat (DCBL), in which it had been an investor since 2010, back to the parent company for INR6 billion. The GP in turn paid INR6.2 billion for the 8.5% stake in DBL, making it the company’s single largest institutional shareholder.

Founded in 1935, DBL has interests in the sugar, mining and electronics industries, as well as travel agents, though with the integration of DCBL the group sees cement as its biggest growth opportunity thanks to an expected boom in infrastructure development in India, the world’s second-biggest cement producer.

It has 11 factories nationwide with an installed capacity of 25 million metric tons per year, and primarily markets to 18 states across east and south India.

For the year ended March 2016 the group reported revenue of INR2 billion, up from INR1.8 billion the year before. Over the same period net profit rose from INR251 million to INR656 million.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Industrials
• Open market
• India
• manufacturing
• KKR