Dalmia Cement demerger plan gets board approval

NEW DELHI: Dalmia Cement Bharat (DCBL) board on Thursday approved demerger of its cement and power business into a separate company Dalmia Bharat Enterprises (DBEL). The new entity will get listed on the stock exchange by the end of this year. Post restructuring, DCBL will become a sugar company and will be renamed, the company’s managing director Puneet Dalmia said.

Further, the cement and thermal power business will be housed under DBEL as two wholly-owned subsidiaries — Avnija Properties and DCB Power Ventures. DBEL will become a public listed holding firm of cement and power businesses.

“The demerger will accelerate our growth and increase our fire power. It will further provide flexibility in raising funds for future growth and expansion,” Mr Dalmia said. The company draws majority of its revenues from the cement business which has an annual capacity of 9 million tonne in units located at Tamil Nadu and Kerala. As a part of the demerger, DBEL will issue one share of Rs 2 for every one share of the same amount owned by an investor in DCBL.