GMR to shift headquarters to Delhi

Move to help synergise operations, currently in Nagpur, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Delhi and Hyderabad

Infrastructure major GMR has decided to shift its group headquarters from Bengaluru to Delhi. The plan will entail relocation of the group’s corporate offices for its energy, airports and highways & urban infrastructure businesses to the national capital.

The move will help the group synergise its operations, currently in Nagpur, Raipur, Bhubaneswar (power business), Hyderabad and Delhi (airports). The group at present does not have any operating project that its could oversee in Bengaluru.

The shifting of base will also entail relocating a little more than 500 employees. The group, which has set a deadline of March 31 next year for a smooth transition, is close to zeroing in on real estate to set up the new headquarters. A spokesperson for GMR, however, refused to comment on the issue.

GMR expects co-location of its businesses at a convenient place to enable pooling of activities and resources, besides enhancing engagement levels and providing ample growth opportunities for the organisation and employees.

The move is in line with the group’s ‘asset-light, asset-right’ strategy, aimed at divesting some assets to reduce the burgeoning debt.

For the past two years, GMR has been working on a process of reorganisation. It set up a shared service centre (SSC) in June 2012 to handle all transactional processes and activities in finance & accounting, human resource and flight management system across the group. Then, the management assurance group (MAG) was moved to an outsourced model to help provide improved service delivery, with a greater focus on technical and project management audits. The group has also outsourced its information technology infrastructure management.
 

The group had conducted a detailed study before concluding Delhi would be the city to shift the headquarters to. A detailed analysis was carried out on the basis of a number of parameters — proximity to Central/state regulatory seat, ministries & legal bodies, ability to participate in critical decision-making process, networking, opportunity for business development, brand value of the headquarters’ location, etc — to identify appropriate location for the group’s corporate office and the sectors where the location could provide business opportunities.