MSEDCL to split ops, hive off farm power biz ahead of IPO

Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd (MSEDCL) will restructure its operations to manage debt and enhance its appeal to investors ahead of its planned public listing next fiscal year, its top official said.

- [e-mail]

The agricultural arm will absorb ₹75,000 crore in unpaid farm dues, Lokesh Chandra, chairman and MD, MSEDCL, said.

(MINT)

Also called Mahavitaran, the state-owned power distributor will be split into two entities, with one taking over electricity supply to the farm sector along with ₹75,000 crore in outstanding dues from farmers, Lokesh Chandra, chairman and managing director of MSEDCL, said.

This company will continue to remain private. The second unit, which will keep the profitable business of supplying power to residential and industrial consumers, will be listed on the stock exchanges, said Chandra, a bureaucrat from the 1993 batch of the Indian Administrative Service.

To pitch itself as a lucrative opportunity to investors, the firm is relying on growth prospects of Maharashtra, which aspires to become a $1 trillion economy by the turn of the decade, from about ₹49.3 trillion ($549 billion) projected by the government for FY26. “We are the largest distribution company (in India). We have a revenue of ₹30,000 crore, which is going to almost double in next five years,” Chandra said.