GMR Infrastructure Ltd (GIL) has announced a strategic restructuring of its business verticals, including a spin-off and the listing of its airport business.
The operator of the Delhi and Hyderabad airports said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that its board has approved the proposal for a vertical demerger. This will see the non-airport business of GIL, which includes energy, urban infrastructure, and EPC services, demerged into GMR Power and Urban Infra Ltd (GPUIL) as a going concern, along with the amalgamation of GMR Power Infra Ltd. GIL, meanwhile, will become a pure-play airport company.
“The restructuring is a step in the right direction towards creating pure plays in different businesses of the group, thereby attracting sector-specific global investors and unlocking value for the current shareholders of GIL. This will also pave the way for focused growth and sustained value creation for all stakeholders over a period of time,” it said.
The scheme will create a mirror shareholding of GIL in GPUIL, with all existing shareholders of GIL becoming shareholders of GPUIL in the same proportion.
“As these businesses mature and chase the next phase of their growth, it would be strategically apt to segregate them. The airport business has grown multifold both domestic and overseas and is expected to benefit with enhanced focus and specialization, building further on its capabilities and strong brand presence,” the company said.
The GMR group’s airport portfolio has around 172 million passenger capacity in operation and under development, comprising of India’s busiest Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Mactan Cebu International Airport in partnership with Megawide in the Philippines. Greenfield projects under development include an airport each at Mopa in Goa and at Heraklion, Crete, Greece, in partnership with GEK Terna.
The GMR-Megawide consortium has also won the Clark International Airport’s EPC project, its second project in the Philippines.
GMR has also recently signed the concession agreement for the development and operation of a greenfield airport at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh. The group recently signed a concession agreement to the commission, operationalize, and maintain the civilian enclave at the Bidar airport in north Karnataka.
GMR’s energy business has a diversified portfolio of around 4,995 megawatts (MW), of which about 3,040MW of coal, gas, and renewable power plants are operational and around 1,955MW of power projects are under various stages of construction and development.
