The over Rs 500 crore infrastructure company, Gayatri Projects Ltd (GPL) is planning to offload upto 49% stake in its newly formed holding company Gayatri Infra Ventures Ltd (GIVL).
The company has appointed Ernst & Young (E&Y) to help them in identifying a potential investor for the holding company. Already six private equity and hedge funds from India and abroad have been shortlisted and negotiations are on.
Speaking to FE, K G Naidu, vice president (finance), GPL said, lot of funds have expressed interest in picking up stake in the holding company. And from the list already 6 have been shortlisted.
?The holding company has already been incorporated. The investments of Rs 165 crore made by the parent company GPL in five BOT projects namely Gayatri Jhansi Roadways Ltd, Gayatri Lalitpur Roadways Ltd, Hyderabad Expressways Ltd, Cyberabad Expressways Ltd and Western UP Tollways Ltd is getting transferred to the holding company and we are in the process of diluting upto 49% stake in the holding company. GPL will go in for one partner who can be a long term associate especially for BOT projects. The off loading process will help the parent company to bid for more BOT projects and obtain EPC contracts. The new holding company with its partner will invest in all future transport related SPVs apart from the present five SPVs,? he said.
The process of diluting stake in the holding company is expected to be completed within a month.
He said, the company is planning to close the current fiscal with a turnover of Rs 780 crore.
?Till end December 2007, we had already done Rs 480 crore. This quarter is peak season for the infrastructure industry so we hope to do another Rs 300 crore during the period. Gayatri and DLF are together bidding for seven BOT road projects and other projects as well. Through the MoU which we signed with DLF, we hope to get orders worth Rs 5,000 crore Rs 10,000 crore in the next two years,? he said.
The order book of Gayatri (ongoing projects) as of now is Rs 3,600 crore. Of which, nearly 66% is road works, 30% is irrigation and 4% is industrial works.