India’s Hindustan Zinc is discussing the possibility of splitting the company into two units with the Indian government, which is opposed to the proposal, CEO Arun Misra said on Friday.
Misra’s comments follow the Indian government’s rejection of a similar proposal in March, as the miner’s largest minority shareholder was not convinced that such a move would boost shareholder value.
The government has also started road shows to sell its stake in the miner, Misra said.
“Hindustan Zinc believes in value creation through demerger and will continue pursuing this, disinvestment or no disinvestment, both ways,” Misra told Reuters in an interview.
Last year, the company said it planned to create separate entities for its zinc, lead, silver and recycling businesses to unlock “potential value”.
Separately, the company plans to foray into domestic critical minerals blocks, he said, adding that it has plans to bid for copper, lithium, gold, platinum and potash blocks.
Misra also said the company is inviting discussions with global mining contractors to start mine development as it aims to double its output to 2 million tons per annum, adding that the contract should be fixed by November.
“Right now we are seeing an average (investment) figure of $2 to $2.5 billion. But once you know the full width and breadth of the project, then we’ll have to go to board, take approval,” he said.
The company may look for some debt and equity funding as it goes for a 2 million ton expansion, chief financial officer Sandeep Modi said in an analyst call earlier in the day.
The company on Friday reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit, helped by gains in zinc prices.
Consolidated net profit rose about 35% from a year ago to 23.27 billion rupees (around $277 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to analysts’ expectations of 22.51 billion rupees according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
Hindustan Zinc said its revenue from operations grew 21% to 80.04 billion rupees, also beating expectations for 79.99 billion rupees.
($1 = 84.0420 Indian rupees)
(By Sethuraman N R, Neha Arora and Manvi Pant; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Varun H K and Vijay Kishore)
