Informist, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025

By Avishek Rakshit

KOLKATA – After settling its dues in an out of court settlement with lender Real Touch Finance Ltd., the Burman family-owned Eveready Industries India Ltd. is set to start internal discussions to devise ways for capital infusion to fuel future growth. The discussion will also involve sale of unused or surplus land and assets, and rollout of the company's first-ever employee stock option scheme.

"These things are at the preliminary discussion or rather at a conceptual stage now. No decision has been taken on any of these. There are various things which are being considered," Suvamoy Saha, managing director at Eveready Industries told Informist.

The settlement with Real Touch Finance is a major move for the company as it removes the barrier that was preventing Eveready Industries from raising capital, Saha said.

The issue dates back to 2020 when Eveready Industries, then a part of the Khaitan family-owned Williamson Magor group, was sucked into a controversy after the holding companies Williamson Magor & Co. Ltd. and Williamson Financial Services Ltd. defaulted on repayment of a INR 2-billion loan taken in 2017 to lender KKR India. The lender had moved the Delhi High Court fearing it will not be able to recover its dues since the Khaitan family were divesting other group assets, including Eveready Industries, for loan repayments to other lenders. Subsequently, KKR India obtained a court order that prevented Eveready Industries from altering the capital structure or monetise any assets.

The Burman family of the Dabur group took over Eveready Industries from the Khaitans in 2022 but the court order remained in place and prevented the Burmans from infusing fresh funds into the company or raise capital. Meanwhile, KKR India sold the debt to an asset reconstruction company and after a change of hands, Real Touch Finance became the inheritor of KKR India's receivables from Eveready Industries.

"Just a few days back, we concluded the deal with Real Touch agreeing to pay INR 150 million against the original default of INR 2 billion that happened with KKR under the previous promoters. We now will have to inform the courts and follow the legal procedure to put to rest this controversy," said Saha, adding that the conclusion of this deal opens the door for the company's future expansion plans and take it to the next level.

"Of course, we will need funds to fuel the company's future growth potential, but we were unable to do it because of the court order. Once the court passes its judgement, we can take forward our discussions internally on how to raise funds," Saha said.

Asked if the company may also consider employee stock option scheme, Saha said, "We may also come up with the company's first-ever employee stock option scheme but as I said, it is too premature to draw any conclusion at the moment."

Industry officials said that the rollout of an employee stock option scheme usually boosts employee confidence in the company and may prove to be a huge motivating factor for employees to work harder as well.

Saha said the company's land bank includes property in locations where Eveready Industries has operational plants. These are at Matia in Assam, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Noida in Uttar Pradesh, Haridwar in Uttarakhand, Maddur in Karnataka, and Kolkata in West Bengal. Moreover, it had unused land in Jammu where it is currently constructing India's first alkaline battery plant at an investment of INR 1.8 billion, and has substantial unused land parcel in Mumbai.

"We need to decide how best we can streamline our manufacturing operations to improve efficiency and then only we can find out which assets we need to divest," Saha said. "The Jammu plant also entails substantial investment."

At 1352 IST, shares of Eveready Industries were up 0.8% at INR 445.85 on the National Stock Exchange. End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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