Corporate loan stress increases in FY17

65 companies had less operating profit than interest payment during H1FY17, up from 59 during FY16

The share of corporate debt under stress rose during the first half of 2016-17, after improving in 2015-16.

Listed companies accounting for 18 per cent of all corporate debt were unable to service this in the first half, up from 14.6 per cent during FY16. The ratio had peaked at 19.3 in FY15. In all, 65 companies (excluding banks and financial entities) had less operating profit than the interest payment during the first half of FY17, up from 59 during FY16.

The analysis is based on a sample of 650 non-financial companies from the BSE 500, BSE mid-cap and BSE