Spencer’s Retail, CESC Ventures To List On Jan. 25

Spencer’s Retail and CESC Ventures will be listed on the exchanges on Jan. 25, after their demerger from CESC Ltd., as per a notification on the stock exchanges.

Both Spencer’s Retail and CESC Ventures will be a part of the trade-for-trade segment for 10 trading days after listing and be part of special pre-open session for IPO.

According to the scheme of arrangement, two shares of CESC Ventures (Rs 10 face value) and six shares of Spencer’s Retail (Rs 5 face value) were issued to existing shareholders holding 10 shares of CESC Ltd. as on Oct 31, 2018. Further, CESC shareholders were allotted 5 lakh full paid-up preference shares of Rs 100 each in Spencer’s Retail. The paid-up capital of Spencer’s Retail and CESC Ventures would be Rs 40 crore and Rs 260 crore, respectively, according to the notification.

Spencer’s Retail will house the retail business of the company while CESC Ventures will house the business process outsourcing unit First Source, Quest Properties and entertainment and fast-moving consumer goods businesses of CESC.

Post the demerger, CESC Ltd.—the core power business of the company—was split into three:

• CESC (power generation & distribution)
• Spencer’s Retail
• CESC Ventures.

The original plan was to split the business into four but owing to delays in regulatory approval from the West Bengal’s power regulator to de-merge its generation business from the distribution business, the company decided to split into three. CESC said it will split the generation and distribution business after approval from West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Spencer’s Retail is valued at Rs 1,900 crore according to the consensus of four brokerages tracking the business, at Rs 239 per share. Meanwhile, CESC Ventures has been pegged at Rs 1,760 crore at Rs 663 per share.