Energy and construction major GMR Infrastructure Ltd said Thursday it will demerge its non-airport businesses into another company and become a pure-play airports firm as part of a group restructuring exercise.
GMR Infrastructure will first merge a wholly owned power unit with itself and then transfer its energy, urban infrastructure, engineering and construction businesses to GMR Power and Urban Infra Ltd.
The non-airport unit will be separately listed on stock exchanges, GMR Infrastructure said in a statement. All existing shareholders of GMR Infrastructure will become shareholders of GMR Power in the same proportion.
The development comes after GMR in February agreed to divest a 49% stake in unit GMR Airports Ltd to French company Groupe ADP for Rs 10,780 crore ($1.5 billion then) in two stages. In July, however, GMR modified the second stage of the deal in the wake of plummeting traffic owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
“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,” the company said.
It added that separately listing its airport and non-airport businesses will simplify the corporate structure and facilitate “deeper understanding of the airport business independently” as compared to other business verticals.
GMR operates airports in New Delhi, Hyderabad and the Philippines. It is also developing an airport in Goa and in Greece. The group recently signed an agreement to develop a new airport at Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh and another one to commission, operationalize and maintain the civilian enclave at the Bidar airport in North Karnataka.
The airports’ total capacity in operation and under development is 172 million passengers.
