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Warburg buys stake in Gujarat Ambuja

Global private equity fund E M Warburg Pincus has acquired a small stake in Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd, India's fourth-largest cement maker, a business daily said on Monday.

In an unsourced report the paper said that Warburg had purchased 2-2.5 per cent of Ambuja's shares from the open market over the past few weeks at Rs 180-190 per share.

Ambuja shares on Friday closed at Rs 190.

Warburg already held a large chunk of Ambuja's foreign currency convertible bonds issued in January. These can be converted into equity anytime within the next five years.

If Warburg decides to convert the bonds into shares, it would increase its equity stake in Ambuja to around 5 per cent, the paper said.

"The total value of the investment made by Warburg in GACL may therefore top the Rs 2-billion level," the paper added.

Ambuja executive director Anil Singhvi said that he had no information about whether or not Warburg had recently purchased shares in the cement maker.

"It is a secondary market purchase. How would we come to know?" he said.

Warburg is a large investor in Indian companies and recently pumped in $200 million into Bharti Televentures which has ambitious plans in the telecom sector.

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