India's GHCL is demerging its businesses into 3 separate firms which will all be listed entities. The company's interests in soda ash, home textiles & retailing will be split & existing GHCL investors will get shares in the 3 firms. Sources said an announcement to this effect is expected shortly. GHCL, on a consolidated basis, has annual global turnover around US$ 700M. This includes the parent company, which has revenues around INR 10,000M from its soda ash & home textile business in the Indian market. It also has 5 international firms which were acquired over the past 2y. Even though the GHCL demerger was expected given the diversification of the firm into home textile retailing, sources say the decision to demerge it into 3 firms was taken recently. The soda ash business has robust margins but profitability in the home textile manufacturing unit is much lower.
