GHCL plans listing on London AIM exchange

The Rs 533 crore home textile and soda ash manufacturer Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd (GHCL) plans to list on London's AIM stock exchange by the middle of next year and will begin restructuring its current operations to adopt a more pure play structure.

This will help the company meet some of the admission criteria of AIM as the company, at present, operates both its soda ash and textile businesses under a single umbrella. The company's returns from the textiles and soda ash business are approximately in the ratio of 1:4.

"We are currently evaluating various structures for our operations and will go ahead with the one that makes the most business sense. The final plans on the restructuring will be laid out by the end of the year and the execution should begin after that," said Nikhil Sen, head (strategy and international business), GHCL.

"We have been advised by the global investment community that a pure play structure, clearly separating the textile and soda ash businesses, would make more business sense and enhance shareholder value, so the company is evaluating its options," he added but refused to divulge details on the size of the proposed float.

GHCL has seven subsidiaries, of which three are in the Netherlands, two in the US, one in Romania and one in India. It has interests in soda ash, salt, textiles, ITeS and energy.

It acquired American brand Dan River in January this year for $17.5 million and followed it up by acquiring the UK's largest home textile retail chain Rosebys in June. AIM is the London Stock Exchange's face for smaller growing companies and over 2,400 companies have joined it since inception in 1995, raising more than £30 billion both through IPOs and further capital raising.