India’s Solar Industries has proposed a R21.8 billion (about US$1.3 billion) all-cash acquisition of South African diversified chemicals and mining solutions group Omnia Holdings, in a deal expected to significantly expand the companies’ capabilities in the global mining explosives market.
Under the proposed scheme of arrangement, Solar SA Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Solar Industries India, will acquire all of Omnia’s issued ordinary shares for R134.50 each.
The offer represents a 30.98% premium to Omnia’s closing share price of R102.69 on September 10 and a 35.73% premium to its 30-day volume-weighted average price of R99.09.
The transaction, announced on September 14, is particularly significant for mining because it would bring together Omnia’s BME business, a major explosives and blasting solutions provider, with Solar’s established international industrial explosives operations.
BME manufactures and supplies explosives and blasting solutions to the mining industry and has developed technologies including AXXIS®, an electronic initiation system used in digital blasting applications. It also has an integrated ammonium nitrate capability.
Solar, meanwhile, operates a global industrial explosives business supplying packaged and bulk explosives and initiating systems to mining, infrastructure and other large-scale projects.
The Indian company has customers in more than 90 countries and a manufacturing footprint spanning 11 countries.
The companies said combining BME’s mining technology, manufacturing and customer relationships with Solar’s scale, research and development capabilities and international reach would support Omnia’s ambition to build a global mining solutions business of scale.
Omnia Group CEO Seelan Gobalsamy said the transaction would allow the company to take its South African innovation and expertise onto a larger international stage.
“Bringing together Omnia’s manufacturing and supply capabilities, technology, brands and customer relationships with Solar group’s scale, R&D capabilities, commercial reach and international presence creates a powerful platform to accelerate BME’s ambition to become a global mining solutions business of scale,” Gobalsamy said.
Solar Managing Director and CEO Manish Nuwal said BME’s global mining platform and electronic initiation technology complemented Solar’s existing industrial explosives business.
The proposed combination is also expected to create opportunities for joint technology development, increased R&D, stronger manufacturing and supply chains and access to new markets.
Beyond mining, the deal would strengthen Omnia’s agriculture business by giving its crop nutrition and biological products access to Solar’s international network.
For South Africa, the transaction represents significant inward foreign investment and signals confidence in the country’s mining, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
The companies also said they intend to support skills development, technology and R&D transfer, international exposure and economic transformation.
Omnia’s board, subject to its legal and fiduciary duties, intends to recommend the transaction to shareholders following due diligence and negotiations.
The deal remains subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and other conditions.
If completed, Omnia’s shares will be delisted from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and A2X Markets, marking a major change in ownership for the 73-year-old South African group and potentially giving BME a much larger platform from which to compete in the global mining explosives and blasting solutions industry.
