Adani names son Karan to run cement cos; injects 20k cr in Ambuja Cement

New Delhi: Billionaire Gautam Adani's son Karan will helm the cement firms his group has acquired to become India's second largest cement player and extend his burgeoning empire that spans from ports and energy to airports and telecom.

In a media statement, Adani group announced the completion of the acquisition of Ambuja Cements and ACC for a total consideration of USD 6.5 billion which includes the buyout of Swiss major Holcim's state in the two firms and subsequent open offers to minority shareholders.

Soon after Adani's takeover, the two cement firms announced the resignation of their board of directors, including the CEOs and CFOs.

The conglomerate named its founder chairman Gautam Adani as the head of Ambuja Cements. His son Karan, who currently heads the group's ports business, was named as a director of both the cement firms and as chairman of

ACC Ltd.

Adani group also quickly named independent directors on the boards of the two firms. These included former State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar on the Ambuja Cement board and former Shell India head Nitin Shukla on the ACC board.

It named Ajay Kumar as the new CEO of Ambuja Cement in place of Neeraj Akhoury and Sridhar Balakrishnan for ACC.

Karan, 35, is an economics graduate from Purdue University, US, and

has been overseeing Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd, which has grown from two ports to a string of 10 ports and terminals.

Gautam Adani, 60, the world's third richest man, has two sons Karan and Jeet. The younger son Jeet, a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania - School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, is vice president for group finance at the conglomerate.

The new board of Ambuja Cements approved an infusion of Rs 20,000 crore in the company by way

of preferential allotment of warrants to equip the firm "to capture the growth in the market." The acquisition of the two cement firms is the largest ever buyout in the infrastructure and materials sector so far in the country and also the biggest acquisition by Adani.

The Adani family, through their special purpose vehicle Endeavour Trade and Investment Ltd, completed the acquisition after completing the transaction with Swiss firm Holcim and open offer, as per a statement.