Bingo

Economic Times
JUNE 22, 2007

Gillette India has sold off its entire commercial property in Gurgaon’s Global Business Park for Rs 72.75 crore. The property has been acquired by Evershine Merchants, an industrial group with multiple business interests including real estate development and construction.

A P&G-spokesperson confirmed to ET, “The company has sold its immovable property, namely its general offices at Global Business Park, Gurgaon, for Rs 72.75 crore.” Sources say Gillette had released an advertisement seeking sale of its commercial property around November last year.

Post its global acquisition by P&G in January 2005, most Gillette employees were relocated to P&G’s Mumbai-based headquarters P&G Plaza, while some employees were relocated to Singapore. Gillette had also managed to end its relationships with its 700-plus distributors (most of who were multi-brand distributors), by offering them exit options.

In India, while P&G and Gillette share operational synergies, the two continue to operate as separate listed legal entities. However, Gillette has switched from operating through a company-owned sales structure to its parent P&G’s distributor-owned sales model.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2007, Gillette India recorded sales of Rs 121.7 crore. Financial results for the quarter were not comparable with the corresponding previous quarter, when the company was in the process of being integrated with P&G.

In 2006, Gillette extended its fiscal year from a 12-month to an 18-month period, and will close the current fiscal on June 30, 2007, in order to realign its financial year with P&G, which follows a July-June fiscal. The Ohio-based P&G had acquired Gillette for $57 billion in January 2005, which made it the biggest household goods company in the world, pushing Unilever to second place.