NEW DELHI: Top airports operator GMR Infrastructure Ltd has rolled out a major restructuring of its corporate structure in an effort to simplify its holdings. The new structure will see the demerger of its airports and non-airports business verticals, even as the company raises another Rs 5,000 crore through issuing securities.
According to the company’s statement on Thursday, the move is a step in the direction of “creating pure plays”, or sector-focused business units, “in different businesses of the group”. This, it added, would help in “attracting sector-specific global investors and unlocking value for the current shareholders of GIL”.
GIL’s board, in tandem with its other group companies GMR Power Infra Limited (GPIL) and GPUIL, has decided on a composite scheme of arrangement which will involve splitting its non-airport business units in segments such as energy, EPC, and urban infrastructure into GPUIL. Preceding the demerger, GPIL would be amalgamated with GMR Infrastructure Ltd (GIL).
“Separate listing of both the airport and non-airport businesses will also help in simplifying the corporate holding structure. The vertical split demerger will go a long way in facilitating deeper understanding of the airport business independently as compared to other business verticals within the group,” GIL said. GMR currently operates the country’s largest airport—New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
It also runs Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and the Cebu airport in the Philippines. The date for the scheme’s implementation has been set as April 1, 2021, after which GIL would become India’s only pure play-listed airports company.
GIL board clears raising up to Rs 5,000 crore
Thursday also saw the GIL board of directors clearing a proposal to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore in additional funding. This would be done in one or more tranches through the issuance of securities, but the enabling resolution would be subject to shareholders’ approval.