The Gujarat Ambuja Cements management is readying itself for further expansion. After having signalled its acquisitive intentions with the takeover of Modi Cements, the company is now preparing to build more greenfield facilities.

The company plans to invest Rs.1,400 crore in greenfield plants. Most of the expansion will be in the southern India.

While acquisitions are a cheap and faster way to expand, they are not always easy to arrange. The company clearly doesn''t want to wait and watch. The company, whose main presence has so far been in the western and north-western markets, is going in for fresh capacity in the south. The idea is clear -- it wants to become a national player in a hurry.

A 6 million tonne capacity (three plants of 2 million tonnes each) is being set up in Andhra Pradesh. These plants will feed the southern market. The company has taken limestone quarries on lease throughout the country, which will enable it to have uninterrupted supply of the crucial raw material. Andhra Pradesh has large deposits of limestone. The company has a seven per cent stake in the Andhra Pradesh-based Priyadarshini Cements, which it is reportedly not keen on increasing.

Among the locations Gujarat Ambuja Cements is considering for its greenfield projects are Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

In the meanwhile, it has laid the foundation stone for a half-million tonne grinding unit in Colombo, which will be fed with clinker from the company''s Gujarat facility. The investment involved: $20 million (around Rs.85 crore).

The company will also make direct despatches of branded cement to Sri Lanka, where it is building a cement terminal. It is also building a packaging unit there. The terminal and packaging units will cost the company $5.5 million (around Rs.22 crore).

Gujarat Ambuja Cements'' capacity has grown steadily from 1 million tonnes in 1993 to 5 million tonnes by end-1998. The company''s despatch capacity has increased by around 25 per cent per annum during the same period.

The company''s succession plans are quite interesting. On January 30, 1999, Narotam Sekhsaria, the managing director of Gujarat Ambuja announced the induction of four of his senior executives as whole-time directors on the board.

They include Anil Singhvi, incharge for the Sri Lankan venture, A V Rao, chief executive-projects, P B Kulkarni, president and B L Taparia, company secretary and financial controller. Though this induction will not have any short term effect since Sekhsaria himself is just 48 years old, in the long term, one of them could succeed him.