NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 16: French cement transnational Lafarge has lashed out at the promoters of DLF Cements for allegedly keeping it in the dark about its parallel negotiations with Gujarat Ambuja Cements.In a release, the French major has said: "Lafarge had been in serious negotiations with the promoters of DLF Cement till the week ended December 11 and were close to signing a final agreement, a draft of which had already been initialed by our respective lawyers."The promoters and we had jointly met all the financial institutions to inform them verbally about the intended sale of promoters' interests.Therefore, we were surprised to read in the newspapers . that a deal had been struck with another group without any consultation or notice to us. We are issuing the statement to clarify that contrary to newspaper reports Lafarge did not withdraw from the negotiations. The promoters had presumably carried out parallel negotiations with another party."Gujarat Ambuja yesterday announced they werepicking up a 51 per cent stake in the Delhi-based company by buying out the promoters' stake, which would further increase to 75 per cent after a preferential allotment, for Rs 142 crore.
