Shares of India Cements have surged repeatedly whenever Radhakishan Damani has upped his stake in the company.

India Cements share price surged 10.5% on Wednesday morning amidst media reports of ace investors Radhakishan Damani considering a takeover of the south-India based cement manufacturer. India Cements shares opened at Rs 134 per share only to surge higher to Rs 139.30 apiece, a jump of 10.5% from its previous close of Rs 126. Radhakishan Damani has informally approached India Cement’s controlling shareholder  N. Srinivasan, for exploring the possibility of a takeover, Bloomberg News reported. As per shareholding pattern publicly available on the stock exchanges, Radhakishan Damani along with his brother Gopikishan Damani holds a 19.89% stake in the firm at the end of March 2020.

Shares of India Cements have surged repeatedly whenever Radhakishan Damani has upped his stake in the company. The Avenue Supermarts promoter held just 4.69% stake in India Cements at the end of the December quarter. Reports claimed that Radhakishan Damani is not looking for a hostile takeover of the Chennai based company. Cement sector has been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant lockdown but price hikes have helped the cement manufacturers improve realisations. Motilal Oswal in a recent research note said that their channel checks showed a price hike of Rs 40-80 by south India based manufacturers. 

Analysts are expecting some recovery for the cement sector, primarily driven by rural India and some pent-up demand. At the present juncture the shortage of labour in urban India has hit the demand from cities. “As per our channel checks, overall sales declined ~10-15% in north/central/east regions, while it fell 20-30% in west and south regions. Faster traction in rural/semi-urban cement demand (before monsoon hits), came to the rescue for the industry while labour/liquidity shortage have led to sharp fall in non-trade sales,” said HDFC Securities in a research report.

India Cements stock price has surged 80% year-to-date and is among the few stocks that beat the March mayhem that equity markets witnessed, sending benchmark indices to their multi-year lows. Radhakishan Damani’s retail hypermarket outlet Avenue Supermarts has also successfully turned positive year to date after a sharp 29% fall between February and March. Avenue Supermarts shares have jumped 31% since their march lows.