GMR Infra plans to raise Rs 5,000 crore

Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure plans to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore through various instruments to fund its expansion plans. The company in April raised around Rs 1,400 crore through the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route.

The company has reported a 37 per cent surge in fourth-quarter net profit at Rs 73 crore, over the same quarter last year, as revenues from road and airport projects buffered the weak performance of its power generation arm.

Revenue was down 15 per cent to Rs 1,125 crore, as a fourth of its existing power generation capacity was decommissioned. The power generation capacity is expected to be fired up during this quarter. Operating profit was up by around 10 per cent to Rs 314 crore.

The road segment reported a 97 per cent increase in revenues, while the airport segment posted about 57 per cent growth. These two sectors covered up the weak performance of the power segment which dropped by 34 per cent.

The power generation arm, which contributes nearly 50 per cent to GMR Infra’s revenues, decommissioned a 235-Mw barge mounted gas-fired power plant near the coast of Mangalore and shipped it to the Kakinada coast in Andhra Pradesh. “We are expecting to start generation from this new location during the first half of June, and it is expected to bring in revenues during the second quarter,” a senior company official said.

GMR Infra is betting big on power to drive growth and is building capacities to generate power 10 times more than the current 840 Mw in six years. The company, which recently raised Rs 900 crore through a private equity placement, is expected to raise another Rs 400 crore shortly.

For 2009-10, GMR Infra posted a 43 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 158 crore on revenue growth of close to 14 per cent at Rs 4,566 crore.

The company, which manages airports at New Delhi, Hyderabad and Istanbul, said passenger traffic had been improving, resulting in 23 per cent growth in revenues for the airport segment.