Impairment hit: GMR Infra's Q4 loss at Rs 2,341 crore

Hyderabad/New Delhi: GMR Infrastructure suffered a loss of Rs 2,341.25 crore on a consolidated basis in the March 2019 quarter, owing to impairment losses of some of the power assets, the airport-to-energy conglomerate said in a filing with bourses Thursday.

The infra major had reported a profit after tax of Rs 4.81 crore during the corresponding quarter of 2017-18.

GMR Infrastructure Ltd (GIL) consolidated total income stood at Rs 2,293.63 crore during the quarter, against Rs 2,234.88 crore in the same quarter in 2017-18, it said.

GMR booked an impairment loss of Rs 1,242.72 crore in the value of Group's investment in GMR Energy Ltd and its subsidiaries/joint ventures, while it has accounted Rs 969.58 crore as impairment loss for GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd an associate of the Group, total Rs 2,212.30 crore.

"Our shareholders have lost substantial amount of money in the energy space and we still continue to keep our commitment there and improve the efficiency in the existing energy assets.

"We have written off the initial investment... At this stage, we would not put more investments in it (energy)... If the regulatory environment becomes clearer and more investment friendly, obviously the board of directors will decide for investments at that particular point in time," GMR Infrastructure Executive Director (Finance & Strategy) Suresh Chawla said here.

GMR Group Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Suresh Bagrodia was present on the occasion.

GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd (GCEL) is engaged in development and operation of a 2 X 685 MW coal-based power project and had declared commercial operations of Unit I on November 1, 2015, and Unit II on March 31, 2016, of its 1,370-MW coal-based thermal power plant at Raipur district Chhattisgarh.

GCEL does not have any long-term PP currently and has been incurring losses since the commencement of its commercial operations and has accumulated losses of Rs 4,228.51 crore as on March 31, 2019.

The company's airport segment reported Rs 1,357.44-crore revenues with Rs 271.02 profit in the quarter ended March 2019.

It garnered against Rs 1,215.06-crore revenue in the year-ago period with Rs 1,215.06 profit.

Group CFO Bagrodia said that for the airport segment, the company's aim is to unlock value through strategic partnership.

GMR Infrastructure has signed a binding term sheet with Marquee long-term strategic and financial investors including Tata Group, GIC Singapore and SSG Capital Management for an investment of Rs 8,000 crore, Bagrodia said.

"The transaction values GAL (GMR Airports Ltd) at post-money valuation of Rs 22,500 crore, including value from earnouts amounting to Rs 4,500 crore. The transaction will help in significant deleveraging of GIL and paves way for demerger of airport business," he said.

"Consolidated debt will go down from 24,000 crore number to a number which is far more healthy... First focus is on airport space which is growing well... Today, we are facing capacity constraints at our airports so we need to expand infrastructure there," Chawla said.

He said the airport vertical is tapping the foreign bond markets for long-term debt capital.

"Delhi airport recently raised 10-year bonds amounting to USD 350 million priced at 6.45 percent per annum for funding of expansion plan from 66 million to 100 million passengers.

"Hyderabad airport achieved financial closure for expansion of capcity from 12 million to 34 million passengers and raised five-year bonds amounting to USD 300 million priced at 5.375 percent per annum," he said.

Passenger traffic at the Delhi airport grew by five percent to 69.2 million passengers in 2018-19 from 65.7 million in 2017-18.

It generated a cash profit of Rs 885 crore in 2018-19 against Rs 807 crore in 2017-18.

The Hyderabad airport passenger traffic grew 16 percent to 21.4 million in 2018-19 from 18.3 million in 2017-18.

The Mactan Cebu airport in Philippines generated a cash profit of Rs 359 crore in 2018-19 as against Rs 216 crore in 2017-18.