NCLT approves CESC's demerger plan; company to split into four entities

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group owned CESC Ltd has received the approval from the Kolkata bench of NCLT to proceed with its demerger scheme, which the company has claimed will result in unlocking more value from the demerged entities.

Under the plan, the group’s power business will be divided into two – generation and distribution while its retail arm, led by Spencer’s Retail will become the third company. The rest of the company’s business verticals will form the fourth entity.

The group's current flagship company, CESC Ltd will take over the distribution business while the other three companies will be listed on BSE, NSE and the Calcutta Stock Exchange.

The generation wing will be named Haldia Energy Ltd while the retail division will be christened RP-SG Retail Ltd. The entity which will have the rest of the businesses will be named RP-SG Business Process Services Ltd. However, these names can be changed at a later date.

The company's entire power generating capacity of 2,550 MW will be brought under one single umbrella while the distribution rights for Kolkata, Howrah, Greater Noida, Bikaner, Kota and Bharatpur will be bifurcated to form another entity. Currently, both these operations come within the direct scope of CESC Ltd.

The company's chairman, Sanjiv Goenka has termed the process as a mirror image demerger stating that the current shareholders of CESC Ltd, one of the group’s listed entity, would get the same proportion of shares in each of the four entities once they are listed on the bourse.