In a bid to further ease up its debt burden, infrastructure major GMR Group could look at divesting a stake in its energy vertical over the next 12 months. The group has ₹6,500 crore of corporate debt and ₹41,000 crore of project debt. Since January it has refinanced debt of about ₹10,000 crore.
The group is keen to reduce its consolidate corporate debt, for which it has raised ₹2,000 crore through FCCBs. This has helping reduced the debt by 23 per cent.
The corporate debt is not backed by cash flows but its project debt of ₹41,000 crore, which is partly refinanced for the next 20 years, is backed by project revenues.
Group CFO Madhu Terdal told
Business turnaround In March 2014, the EBITA was ₹22 crore and, by March 2015, it had risen to ₹222 crore. In the last two quarters it has risen to ₹380 crore, he said, adding that by the end of this fiscal it will go beyond ₹1,000 crore. So the group’s health has improved, he added.
Terdal further said that in such a scenario, the group could further reduce debt by getting a strategic or equity investor in the energy business. Even an IPO could be considered.
“These plans will not happen today but may happen in the next 12-18 months. Today the market is not ready for an IPO. But we are in touch with the investors,” he said.