Century Textiles rallies on board rejig, restructuring of cement & paper biz reports

MUMBAI: It was a heavy news flow day for Century Textiles, ranging from the rejig of the company board to the restructuring of different businesses.

Patriach Basant Kumar (BK) Birla is likely to step down as the Chairman and Kumar Mangalam (KM) Birla may be elected as the Chairman, reported Yatin Mota of ET NOW, quoting sources.

Stocks of Century Textiles surged as much as 8.44 per cent in intraday trade on Wednesday, to end the day at Rs 736.40; up 3.03%.

Rajashree Birla may be appointed as a (woman) board member.

In a response to ET Now’s queries, Aditya Birla Group replied it does not comment on market speculations.

In another development, Century Textiles is likely to carve out its cement business and merge it in an all-share deal with India's largest cement maker UltraTech, owned by grandson KM Birla.

“Both the companies are in the final stages of a plan to merge the cement businesses,” one of the two persons said. “The enterprise value of Century's cement business has been put at Rs 10,500 crore, and an announcement could be made in a few weeks,” ET quoted two people, with direct knowledge of the plan, as saying.

Once approved by shareholders, the merged entity's capacity would add up to 87 million tonnes. This would help UltraTech achieve 100-million tonne output much before its target of 2020 and allow it to take on the combined might of Lafarge and Holcim in India.

According to Reuters, cigarettes-to-hotels major ITC is in talks with Century Textiles to buy its paper division. Century’s textile division is also likely to be merged with Aditya Birla Nuvo.