UltraTech Cement, led by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, is planning to sell shares of India Cements worth around ₹740 crore this week.
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The move comes because of SEBI’s rules, which say that listed companies must have at least 25% of their shares owned by the public. Right now, UltraTech owns 81.5% of India Cements, much higher than the limit. To follow the rules, UltraTech will reduce its stake to 75% by selling 6.5% of shares between Thursday and Friday.
The company has set a floor price of ₹368 per share, just below India Cements’ last closing price of ₹370 on the BSE.
UltraTech’s stake had gone above 75% after it made an open offer, which allowed it to buy more shares from public shareholders. Interestingly, that open offer was oversubscribed, meaning more people wanted to sell their shares than UltraTech had planned to buy—a rare situation.
SEBI has given India Cements time until February 3, 2026, to meet the public shareholding requirement.
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UltraTech began buying into India Cements in June 2024, when it purchased 24% from investor Radhakishan Damani (founder of DMart). A month later, it acquired 32.8% from India Cements’ founding family, including N. Srinivasan. These deals together triggered the mandatory open offer for an additional 26% of shares.
