The Hindu Business Line : RPG Group to sell idle assets

THE Rs 8,460-crore RPG Group is selling all its idle and non-performing assets, which include land and office space across the country, according to Mr Sanjiv Goenka, vice chairman of the group.

He told reporters on Tuesday that an internal committee was currently identifying the unutilised land and office space.

"The purpose of this whole exercise is to unlock the wealth of these assets," Mr Goenka said.

He, however, clarified that the ambit of the exercise excluded CESC Ltd, which is in the process of making a $40 million GDR issue on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange some time in October this year.

To start with, the group had decided to sell off 10 acres adjacent to Saregama India Ltd's Dum Dum factory for which it had entered into an agreement with the United Belani group, a real estate developer.

"In fact, it is a contract to sell the property to United Belani. We have given them six months to get all the necessary clearances. If they get it, then we would sell the property to them," he said.

According to Mr Goenka, the RPG Group is likely to earn Rs 15 crore from this deal. He, however, clarified that only the unutilised land at the Dum Dum unit would be sold and that the factory had been left untouched.

In this context, he mentioned the property development of the Pune-based Zensar Technologies Ltd, the group's IT firm, which had fetched Rs 32 crore. When asked whether his group was following the example of Eveready Industries India Ltd, belonging to the B.M. Khaitan Group, which had recently closed its factory near Chennai and developed it into a premium IT hub in partnership with another firm, he said: "No, we are not following any particular model of transaction. It will vary from one deal to another."

He said idle property had been identified at the Kurla (near Mumbai) facility of KEC International, the group's power transmission company.

"We also have such land at the Bhanduv factory of Ceat (tyre-producing unit in Maharashtra)," he said. .

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