Proposed demerger of the hotel business will improve the financial return ratios of ITC Ltd, says ITC chairman

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

ITC Ltd while the conglomerate will be able to continue to enjoy the synergies for its other businesses such as fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) with hotels as it used to, chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri said. ITC on Monday announced the demerger of the hotels business into a new entity which will be subsequently listed. As per the scheme of arrangement approved by ITC board, ITC Ltd will hold 40% stake in the new entity and the balance 60% will be held directly by the company’s shareholders proportionate to their shareholding in ITC Ltd. In an analyst meet held virtually on Thursday regarding this demerger, Puri said ITC Ltd’s financial ratios will improve substantially due to this demerger. “It will reinforce our position on sharper capital allocation, unlock value for existing shareholders and the way it has been structured, institutional synergies will remain,” he said. Elaborating, ITC’s chief financial officer and executive director Supratim Dutta told analysts that ITC’s segment capital employed on hotels business which is now about 20% will go off and so will segment EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) of about 3-4% to ITC’s total EBIT. “There will be 18-20% improvement in return on capital employed (ROCE) and over 10% for return on invested capital (ROIC) for ITC,” he said. ROCE and ROIC are both key profitability ratios which helps to understand how well a company's capital is being employed to run the business.

ITC board approves demerger of hotels business, share price drops 4%

ITC has been dependent on the hotel business to expand its new FMCG business especially in areas like packaged food where a lot of input comes from the hotel chefs, trials and consumer feedback