Welspun Infra Projects Pvt. Ltd. (WIPPL), a subsidiary of Welspun Corp, on Monday, entered into a share sale agreement with the Leighton group to sell Welspun’s entire 39.88 per cent stake in Leighton Welspun Contractors India Pvt. Ltd. (LWIN) for $99 million (around Rs.614 crore).
The transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2014 once procedural conditions are met, a statement from Welspun Corp said. The net proceeds received by Welspun will primarily be used to de-leverage its balance sheet, it said. With this sale, LWIN will be renamed as Leighton India. Welspun Corp had acquired 35 per cent stake in LWIN for Rs.470 crore in 2011 “to capitalise on opportunities in the Indian infrastructure sector, especially public-private-partnership projects,’’ the statement said. Subsequently, it acquired additional shares in the entity in a cashless transaction worth Rs.115 crore.
Welspun Corp is into four businesses, including line pipes, energy, infrastructure and steel. It has a significant presence in line pipes and energy, and is in advanced stages of de-merging the parts of its business other than line pipes into Welspun Enterprises through a court process, the statement said.
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Welspun said it decided to exit LWIN to enable it to redirect its efforts and reposition itself in the infrastructure space which had synergies with its other businesses.
To streamline the structure, Welspun Infratech has also entered into an agreement with Welspun Infra Developers Pvt. Ltd. (WIDPL) to acquire its 40 per cent stake in WIPPL.