New valuation pegs BSNL's prime land at Rs 65,000 cr: CMD

BSNL's one-third of prime land holdings alone is estimated to be now worth Rs 65,000 crore, way higher than the book value of Rs 975 crore for its entire land assets recorded decades ago, a senior company official said.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) had a 'book value' of Rs 975 crore for the 15,000-odd land and building assets it holds, Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said.

This valuation was arrived at decades back, and in order to reflect a true picture the company got a reassessment done using the 'fair value' method.

BSNL -- figured among the top loss making firms with a net loss of about Rs 3,880 crore in the government's Public Enterprises Survey 2015-16 -- initiated the valuation exercise as part of project 'Vasundhara' in April this year.

KPMG was roped in as a consultant for the project, which is now nearing completion.

The exercise, done alongside the aggressive business revival plans the company pursues, saw one-third of the freehold land assets, mostly in prime locations in major cities being reassessed at the current market value.

"We decided to go for fair valuation of a third of our land parcels...freehold land. For entire land holding, the 'book value' was so far Rs 975 crore in our books of account.

With this, the fair valuation has been estimated at about Rs 65,000 crore just for one-third of land parcels," he told

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)