BPL may hive off alkaline battery unit into JV

BPL Ltd has decided to transfer the firm's alkaline battery business to a proposed joint venture company. This will be preceded by the business being leased for six months from a date to be decided upon.

The board also decided to invest in the equity share capital of the proposed joint venture, subject to the approval of the members, lenders and regulatory authorities.

This is part of a series of decisions that were taken by the company's board today. All the decisions are naturally subject to approval by the general body for which an extraordinary general meeting will be called as well as a postal ballots issued.

BPL has a manufacturing unit at Dobbestpet, 40 km from Bangalore, with a capacity to manufacture around 100 million batteries per year. Last year, BPL had hived off its dry cell battery business to Eveready at an enterprise valuation of Rs 82 crore.

The choice of going in for a joint venture for alkaline batteries instead of outright disposal, as in the case of dry cell batteries, has been dictated by export prospects in the US, EU, UK, and Japan where its batteries are sold under the Sanyo brand name.

This is a part of the overall restructuring that the troubled group has gone in for with the reworking of its debt and transfer of its flagship TV business to a joint venture with Sanyo.