GTL Infrastructure Ltd, which has plans to emerge debt free in the next four years, has reduced its combined debt to Rs 4,193 crore, following the implementation of a Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) scheme.
The combined debt includes that of passive infrastructure sharing firm Chennai Network Infrastructure Ltd (CNIL).
The debt has been reduced to a “sustainable level” post SDR implementation on April 13, 2017, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
GTL Infra has now made a turnaround as prior to SDR, the company's combined debt was at Rs 8,553.46 crore. In FY 2011, the two entities debt stood at Rs 11,000 crore, as per earlier regulatory filings.
The combined company’s EBIDTA has also moved up from a low of Rs 593 crore in FY 2011 to Rs 1,121 crore in FY 16-17. The EBITDA is likely to exceed Rs 1,300 crore in this fiscal.
As of March 31, the combined company’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 2,286 crore.
GTL Infra is a Global Group company, while the other companies in the fold are network services firm GTL and passive infrastructure sharing firm Chennai Network Infrastructure Ltd. The group is headed by Chairman Manoj Tirodkar.
CNIL was a special purpose vehicle formed to park Aircel’s 17,500 telecom towers and 21,000 tenants, which GTL Infra bought in 2010 for Rs 8,400 crore.
GTL Infra has also received the Competition Commission of India’s approval for its proposed merger with Chennai Network Infrastructure Ltd (CNIL).
The merger is now subject to requisite statutory approvals, including that of various National Company Law Tribunals.
The merged entity will continue to operate as GTL Infra, while the proposed merger will create a large neutral and independent telecom tower company with presence across all 22 telecom circles. The combined company has 27,759 towers with 50,845 tenants as on March 31, 2017.
As part of SDR, the companies were merged with a 1:1 share ratio for which it got approvals as per regulatory filings.