Eveready Industries is keen to monetise some of its land bank within the next two years. The dry-cell battery-maker hopes to use some of the proceeds to pay off some of its Rs270 crore debts and emerge debt-free by 2015.
Apart from outright sale to real estate developers, Eveready would also be looking at joint development of projects to extract maximum value from its land parcels like 25 acres in Hyderabad and 10 acres in Noida which are ready for development.
Eveready owns land in Lucknow and Kolkata as well. But any such transaction would happen only after a revival in the real estate market and easing of interest rates, said Amritanshu Khaitan, director, Eveready.
He said there is no pressing need for a distress sale. “I don’t see any deals happening immediately. The next 18-20 months could see one or two deals.”
On Wednesday, he launched a slew of new Eveready products like rechargeable lights and fans.
The company, he said, is keen to repay about Rs50 crore of its existing debts through internal generation.
Eveready’s surplus land holdings emerged over the years, following its strategy to shift some of the battery plants from metro cities to outskirts, freeing up pricey properties in prime locations, and shut down some unviable plants.
For instance, continuous fall in sales of D-sized batteries, which are used mostly in rural areas, made its Hyderabad plant redundant, leading to its closure in 2009.
Ever since, the company has been trying to dispose of its Hyderabad property but did not, mainly because of slowdown in the realty market.
In 2005, Eveready jointly developed an IT park over a 8.5-acre plot at Guindy near Chennai with Khivraj Tech Park.
In 2007, it sold a vacant 15-acre plot in Navi Mumbai to HDIL.
“We are open to outright sale of land or even joint development. We’ve done both in the past. We may also join hands with our group company McNally Bharat which is into construction,” said Khaitan.
@SumitMoitra
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