Leighton finalises strategic India subsidiary sale

Last week Leighton Holdings announced that it had finalised the sale of a 35 per cent stake of the operations of its subsidiary, Leighton India, to Welspun Group. The deal was originally announced in December.

“We will build a strategic partnership with Welspun that can capitalise on the enormous opportunities that are emerging in the Indian infrastructure sector,” said David Stewart, Leighton Holdings chief executive. “The strategic partnership combines Leighton’s international construction capability and Welspun’s significant local market knowledge, a pipeline of construction work and preparedness to invest in infrastructure projects.

“For Leighton, partnering with a local partner clearly provides greater access to the market and is a strategic move which aims to capitalise on the many concessions based projects - which have similar characteristics to PPP’s - and infrastructure opportunities that are emerging in India. The Indian Government is planning to spend USD 1000bn on infrastructure projects during the XII Plan between 2012 and 2017, which should offer a wide range of projects for the new partnership to deliver.”