Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Food & Herbal Park gets a triple-notch downgrade

Brickworks Ratings assigns BBB-plus to firm's Rs 360 cr loan plan from A-plus. Without credit enhancement, the rating is below the investment grade at BB-plus

Patanjali Food & Herbal Park Nagpur Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Patanjali Ayurved, received a triple-notch downgrade by Brickwork Ratings on Tuesday.

The rating agency has downgraded the company's Rs 360 crore loan programme to BBB-plus from A-plus. Without the credit enhancement, the rating is below investment grade at BB-plus.

The credit enhancement for Patanjali Food & Herbal Park is based on an "unconditional and irrevocable corporate guarantee" by its parent company Patanjali Ayurved.

The rating note suggests that the downgrade has factored in the hold up in the company's mega park project in Nagpur, due to existing the lender's "part disbursal of term loans".

This has compelled the company to look for other sources of project funding, the note points out.

Also, the rating remains under 'rating watch with developing implications'.

However, the note pointed that there could be an upgrade if the company achieves timely financial closure and project implementation, "without any further cost and time overruns".

This is the second instance of a Patanjali company getting downgraded in the space of a month. In October, CARE had downgraded over Rs 1,000 crore of Patanjali Ayurved's long-term bank facilities by two notches to A-minus, citing expected weakening of the company's financial risk profile on account of "large outflow of funds from the company to Patanjali Consortium Adhigrahan Pvt Ltd", a special purpose vehicle created for the acquisition of Ruchi Soya.

Following a request by the company and a no-objection certificate from lenders, CARE has withdrawn its ratings on various outstanding loan facilities of Patanjali Ayurved.