Industrial group Larsen & Toubro is looking to sell some assets including roads and infrastructure projects and dilute its stake in non-core subsidiaries to revive performance, the group’s executive chairman said on Wednesday.
A.M. Naik said L&T, a sprawling $21 billion group, remained far too complex and needed to improve its return on equity by exiting some infrastructure businesses and selling minority stakes in operations no longer as essential to the company.
“I am trying to reduce the smaller businesses and sell them. If I can do something about heavy asset companies, some of it we could exit or sell, our return on equity will improve,” he told Reuters in an interview in Mumbai.
L&T, which makes anything from metro trains to submarines to parts for nuclear reactors, will also appoint individual unit chief executives and individual boards to encourage independence and boost returns among its more than 70 businesses, Naik said.