A M Naik then decided to sell the cement business to the Birla group without competitive bidding. The government agreed after two months of the stand-off. A M Naik stood firm throughout negotiations with the Birla group and the L&T Employees Welfare Foundation shareholding in L&T grew to 14.9%. Another 15% was with individual employees as stock options – making a total of 30% stakes in the company. "In the end we kept L&T independent. We ringfenced it from future takeover attempts by setting up the L&T employees welfare foundation that eventually bought Birlas stake. And the Birlas got our demerged cement business that added to their cement production capacity. "It relieved us of a non-core asset-heavy business making us an AAA rated company by drastically cutting out debt equity ratio. It was a win-win for all," Naik said in the book. "What seemingly started as a conflict situation with Grasim ended in a win-win solution for both the companies.