Ambuja on aggressive growth path with continued focus on Performance and Sustainability

The 39th Annual General Meeting of Ambuja Cements Ltd. was conducted virtually today, with Mr. Martin Kriegner, Non-Executive Director of the Company, chairing the meeting. The Chairman mentioned that Ambuja is strongly progressing towards becoming the 'Most Innovative, Sustainable and Competitive Building Solutions Company in India'. Ambuja has a robust road map to become the best in the industry with strategic priorities structured under the key levers of accelerating growth, expanding solutions and products, leading in innovation and sustainability and delivering superior performance.

Growth: Ambuja has ambitious growth plans to increase cement capacities. The company is wellpositioned to meet the expanding demand, and has commissioned a modern green cement plant at Marwar. This plant has enhanced Ambuja's clinker capacity by 3.0 million tons per annum and cement sales potential by 5.0 million tons per annum. The company is undertaking an expansion of cement grinding capacity at Ropar, Punjab by 1.5 million tons per annum. Ambuja has also begun the next phase of capacity expansion with 7 mi ll ion tons per annum of cement grinding capacity in the Eastern region. This will help the Gompany move closer to its target of achieving 50 million tons per annum cement capacity in the near future.

Performance: Ambuja's various cost management and efficiency initiatives have helped it deliver a strong performance. Despite numerous challenges, 2021 was a very successful year in the company's history. Net sales rose 23% year-on-year to Rs 13,794 crore, while operating EBIT increased 25% year-on-year to Rs 2,656 crore. The EBITDA and profit after tax went up by 21 % and 16%, respectively.

Innovation: Ambuja remains committed to developing innovative products with superior quality and performance. Ambuja Kawach, a sustainable water-repellent cement launched in 2020, has emerged as a premium preferred product, with more than 300% increase in volumes year-on-year. Ambuja Kawach is also the first Indian cement brand to be recogn ised by the Global Solar Impulse Foundation as a "Green Building Solution".

"Ambuja Cool Walls", our green solution for walls that helps keep homes cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, is now manufactured in 18 plants across India, with a 25% year-on-year volume growth.

Ambuja has accelerated its digital transformation, for enhancing efficiency and performance, through various initiatives. Some of them are Plants of Tomorrow, which implements automation technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence, and predictive maintenance through the entire manufacturing process; Digital Eye Program, which uses drones to inspect confined spaces; and Transport Analytics Centre (TAC), a digital platform that enables the cement manufacturer to optimize its network by providing real-time information across the value chain.

Ambuja is also enhancing the interaction experience of its customers and influencers through various platforms and applications such as 'Ambuja Dealer Connect' for our dealers, 'Ambuja Darpan' and "Ambuja Abhimaan' for our contractors.

Sustainability: At Ambuja, Sustainabil ity is at the core of our business strategy and we are aligned to our parent Holcim's Net Zero ambition. The company has developed 2030 carbon emission reduction targets that have been validated by Science Based Target lniti.atives (SBTi).

Ambuja is investing in clean energy efforts. The Board of Directors has approved Waste Heat Recovery Systems (WHRS)in Ambujanagar and Maratha and with this 87 MW of WHRS will be operational by 2023. Together with this, Ambuja is implementing other renewable energy projects and it remains on track to fulfill more than one third of our energy needs through clean and green sources by 2025.

"Geocycle", Ambuja's in-house waste management arm, offers safe waste management solutions for the use of industrial, biomass and municipal wastes in the kilns. In 2021, we have handled close to 3 lakh tons of waste to generate alternative fuels. We have prioritized management of single-use plastic through co-processing, which helps to keep them out of landfills and rivers. "Geocycle" is also working with municipalities to help remed iate legacy dumps by safely co-processing their segregated combustible waste fractions in kilns at Ambuja plants.

Ambuja has driven increased usage of Waste Derived Resources such as fly ash and slag in the manufacturing of cement. Ambuja consumed 8.8 million tons of Waste Derived Resources in 2021. Ambuja's environmental stewardship efforts focus on resource and water conservation . Furthermore, the company has been recognized for its leadership in corporate sustainability by global environmental agency CDP and has secured a place on its prestigious 'A List' for tackling water security. Ambuja is the first and only cement company in the world to have accomplished this feat demonstrating our focus on corporate sustainability. Ambuja is 8 times water positive and 3.5 times plastic negative through co-processing of plastic wastes in our kilns.

Ambuja Cement Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm, carried out several interventions to address the Covid second wave's impact on communities. During 2021, Ambuja Cement Foundation focused on key intervention areas such as water resource management, agrobased livelihood, skill-based livelihood, health and sanitation, women empowerment, and education.

Ambuja spent Rs. 64.41 crore on our CSR efforts, and reached 2.81 million people in 3,457 villages in 50 districts across 11 Indian states in 2021 . Ambuja Cement Foundation was recognised as a Great Place to Work in the non-profit & charity organization category and has received the third ICC (Indian Chamber of Commerce) Social Impact award 2021 for women empowerment and healthcare.

Comments of Mr. Martin Kriegner, Chairman of the 39th AGM: "I would like to thank all the stakeholders - board members, employees, customers, vendors and shareholders of Ambuja who have believed in us and supported us to deliver superior performance and shareholder value."

Given Ambuja's strong operational and financial performance during the fiscal year in question, the Board is pleased to recommend a final dividend of Rs 6.30 per share for the fiscal year ended December 31 , 2021, with a total pay-out ratio of 60%.

Shares of Ambuja Cements Limited was last trading in BSE at Rs. 371.85 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 383.55. The total number of shares traded during the day was 348944 in over 8523 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 385.60 and intraday low of 370.55. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 132041246.00.

Source : Equity Bulls

Keywords

AmbujaCements INE079A01024 AGM 39th