Gokaldas Exports Ltd, the garments maker controlled by private equity giant Blackstone, has decided to sell land, building and other assets related to four of its properties in Bangalore, Mysore and Hyderabad.
The company has decided to put on the block properties related to Balaji Fashion House and Global Garments Unit-III in Bangalore, two plots in Mysore and one plot in Hyderabad, it said in a stock market filing. It didn’t disclose any details of the assets.
An emailed query to the company's spokesperson seeking details didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this article.
In April last year, the company had announced selling a factory in its home city Bangalore to apparel firm Raymond Ltd for an undisclosed amount. This unit didn’t have any significant operations and had zero revenue in the year ended March 31, 2014.
Gokaldas has about two dozen factories where it employs almost 26,000 employees, according to its 2014-15 annual report. It has a capacity to produce and export about 2.5 million garments a month.
Blackstone had acquired a controlling stake in the firm in August 2007 for Rs 485.2 crore and later raised its holding through an open offer.
Currently, the PE firm holds just under 58 per cent stake in Gokaldas. In 2014, it sold some of its stake in the secondary market. Its investment is now valued much lower than what it had put in to gain control of the company, which now has a market value of Rs 241 crore.
Gokaldas has struggled to increase its revenue and profit over the past few years. The firm posted revenue of Rs 1,070.12 crore in 2014-15, compared with Rs 1,142.41 crore in 2010-11. It posted a net profit of Rs 34.36 crore in 2014-15 after reporting losses five year in a row, according to stock-exchange data.