Anant Raj Splits: Real Estate Meets Data Center Future

Anant Raj, after decades of primarily assembling land, is strategically splitting its operations. The company's board approved a scheme to demerge its data-center and cloud business into a separately listed entity, Ashok Cloud Private Limited, effective July 21, 2026. The remaining real estate and infrastructure business will stay with the listed parent.

This demerger addresses the conglomerate discount, where diverse businesses within one company are not valued optimally by the market. Anant Raj's unique situation involves a rapidly scaling, high-margin data center operation alongside its established, cyclical real estate development business.

The data center undertaking, which operated 28 MW of IT load as of H1 FY26, contributed significantly to group profits despite low revenue. The plan is to expand capacity to 357 MW by FY32, supported by significant state Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs).

The real estate arm focuses on residential development in Gurugram, leveraging a substantial land bank acquired decades ago. Despite strong revenue and profit growth in recent years, Anant Raj faces challenges in brand recognition and historical cash flow conversion issues.

Shareholders will receive one Ashok Cloud share for every Anant Raj share held on the record date, a 1:1 entitlement. However, Anant Raj will retain approximately 51% ownership of Ashok Cloud, creating a partial value unlock and a potential holding-company discount.

The process involves multiple regulatory approvals, including from stock exchanges, SEBI, and the National Company Law Tribunal, with the full listing expected in 18-24 months from the board's approval on July 21, 2026.