Way back in 1899, when India was under British rule, Calcutta Electricity Supply Company brought electricity to Calcutta, the then capital city of the country. The English owners of the company, then considered a blue-chip, went for a dual listing of the stock, both in Calcutta and in London.

More than a century down the line, everything has changed in and around the company headquarters at Victoria House in the central business district of the city. Calcutta, now renamed Kolkata, has lost its prominence both on the political as well as economic fronts.

The Calcutta Stock Exchange had lost its trade to NSE and BSE. Calcutta Electricity Supply Company was taken over by the late Rama Prasad Goenka in 1989 and renamed CESC Ltd.

Now, one of the private sector utilities in the country, CESC has only 164 shareholders in London. Most of them are perhaps holding the shares purely for historic and sentimental reasons.

The shares do not attract any trading activity on LSE.

And, Sanjiv Goenka, son of Rama Prasad Goenka and the new chairman of CESC Ltd, does not find much reason to fork out a huge sum of money every year for sentimental reasons. The company has taken shareholders approval to de-list the shares from LSE.

“We have decided to delist the shares as a cost-cutting measure,” Sanjiv told newspersons after the CESC annual general meeting in Kolkata on Friday.

“Though there is no trading volume, we spend a significant sum every year just to keep the shares listed.” Available estimates with the company suggest that CESC pays in excess of £80,000-90,000 (Rs 70-80 lakh) annually as listing expenses to LSE.

Ask him more about the glorious history and Sanjiv makes it clear that he is more interested in the future.

From a Kolkata-centric utility with roughly 1,200-MW generation capacity, CESC is now looking to spread its wings to other cities, coupled with a rapid increase in generation capacity.

pratim.bose@thehindu.co.in

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