Nicco Corporation Scheme of Arrangement

Nicco Corporation released the following announcement to the BSE on 4th Feb.

---------------------------
Nicco Corporation Ltd informed BSE that the Company has filed a Scheme of Arrangement with the Hon. High Court of Calcutta for transfer of its Cable business, to its wholly owned subsidiary Nicco Cables Ltd. This subsidiary will be convened to a Joint Venture with Prysmian (60% stake in the Joint Venture) a world leader in the energy and telecommunications cables industry with strong market position in higher-added value market segments.

Nicco will retain the remaining 40% in the Joint Venture and will receive a consideration price of Rs 133 crores (subject to adjustments) for the transfer of its cables division. The transaction will also result in, inter—alia, the debt relating to the cables business getting transferred from Nicco to the Joint Venture (subject to Hon. High Court, lenders and CDR approval).

Once the Scheme is implemented, Nicco Corporation Ltd will be a debt-free Company and will be able to employ the consideration from the transaction to aggressively grow its existing Project & Engineering Business in the Infrastructure, Petrochemical and Environmental areas. The current Order Book position of the Project Division is approximately Rs 300 crores and it has more orders in its pipeline, where it has emerged as the preferred L1 Bidder.
---------------------------

Sounds like a good deal for the existing shareholders. Given that Nicco Corporation, post the Scheme of Arrangement, will have the following characteristics:

- Debt free status
- an EPC business with an order book of over Rs.300 crore
- Cash infusion of Rs.130 crore
- Plenty of 'developable' land in Kolkata, that too are prime locations

Given that most Engg. companies are currently quoting at a Mcap / Sales ratio of anywhere between 2-3 times. If Nicco Corporation were to be quoting at anywhere near that number, the company's mcap could be quoting in the north of Rs.300-350 crore (primarily based on its Engg. business, compared to the current mcap of around Rs.250 crore). In addition, some value will be ascribed to its 40% holding in Nicco Cables (which will be owned and run by Prysmian as per the JV signed between the two companies a few months ago. Personally, I think, the Company is also looking to develop some of the large land it owns in Kolkata. That should provide a further filip to the stock price in the future.

Ofcourse, my argument is based on the following hypothesis:

- the Engg. will be profitable
- the Company will develop its land
- Prysmian will turn around and make Nicco Cables a profitable company

I've written about this company in the past [Link1, Link2 and Link3] and I hold shares of Nicco Corporation, bought at Rs. 24 per share, compared to the CMP of Rs.29.