The story
Founded by Ghanshyam Das Birla in 1857.1
The group has its origins in a cotton trading business started by Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857 in Pilani, Rajasthan. His grandson G. D. Birla later expanded the family's trading business to jute, cotton, and textiles, and established multiple manufacturing businesses that laid the foundation for the Aditya Birla Group. He was noted for his connection with Mahatma Gandhi.
Aditya Vikram Birla, the grandson of G.D. Birla, began establishing the group's businesses abroad. In 1969, he founded companies in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Egypt. Under his leadership, the group diversified into metals, cement, textiles, and telecom.
Kumar Mangalam Birla became the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group in 1995 after the death of his father Aditya Vikram Birla.
The group entered the cement business through a hostile takeover of Larsen & Toubro's cement business between 2001 and 2004. The business was renamed UltraTech Cement.
In 2007, group company Hindalco Industries acquired Novelis, a producer of flat-rolled aluminium products, for $6.1 billion.
In 2008, the group's telecom arm Idea Cellular acquired Spice Communications for $1.8 billion.
In 2010, UltraTech Cement acquired the Dubai-based ETA Star Cement Company for an enterprise value of $380 million.
In 2011, the group acquired the pulp and fibre company Domsjö Fabriker for $340 million. In 2012, the group acquired the fashion and retail company Pantaloons for $437 million.
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In 2017, UltraTech Cement completed the ₹16,189 crore ($2.3 billion) acquisition of Jaiprakash Associates' six integrated cement plants and five grinding units, having a capacity of 21.2 million tonnes. In 2018, it acquired Binani Cement for $1.1 billion and Century Cement for $1.2 billion.
In 2020, group company Hindalco Industries purchased the aluminium company Aleris for $2.8 billion. In 2021, Grasim Industries entered the paints business.
In 2022, the group launched TMRW, a D2C retail platform, and Grasim's B2B e-commerce venture in the building materials segment.
In 2026, a consortium comprising the Aditya Birla Group, The Times Group, Bolt Ventures, and Blackstone acquired the Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket franchise for ₹16,600 crore (US$1.78 billion).
The Aditya Birla Group acquired Sprng Energy in ₹17,200 crore deal from Shell plc. This acquisition takes Aditya Birla Group's renewable energy capacity to 9.3 GWp, making it one of India's largest renewable energy players.
The Aditya Birla Group has started levying a royalty fee of 0.25 per cent of revenue on all stock exchange listed Group companies that use the Aditya Birla brand as the Aditya Birla brand is owned by promoter company i.e. Birla Group holdings Private Limited. The royalty will be applicable from June 1 and will have an annual cap of ₹225 crore.
From Wikipedia’s article on Aditya Birla Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4