L&T Infra's power sector exposure not stressed: officials

Trouble in the power sector notwithstanding, the portfolio of L&T Infrastructure Finance is not "stressed", a senior company official said today.

"Our exposure in the power sector is not stressed and there had been no case of restructuring of loan. [This] despite our exposure in the sector being 37%," joint General Manager (risk and asset management), L&T Infra Dhananjay Yellurkar said on the sidelines of roadshow for infrastructure bonds.

In the power sector the problem is only in thermal power projects due to coal issues, he said.

Thermal power projects are just 13-14% of their Rs 8,800 crore cumulative exposure and only 4-5% of their exposure is in thermal projects linked to coal linkages from Coal India and another just 2% linked to imported coal, Yellurkar said.

Telecom portfolio since last few years had shrunk to 12%, he said adding the company is bullish on green energy sector in which company's exposure remains 20%.

L&T Infra has exposure in renewables, hydro and cogeneration.

Last year, focus was in solar and this year it will be in wind, he pointed out.

Roads remained another area of focus with current loan portfolio of 17%, but Yellurkar said they remained vigilant in selecting road projects.

"There was some aggressive bidding in some road projects compared to realistic traffic projections. So we have to vigilant," Yellurkar said.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure finance company raised Rs 530 crore through first tranche of infra bonds out of a total of Rs 1,100 crore in the current financial year.

The easing of yield on 10-year paper since December helped the company to reduce rate of the tranche 2 bond by 30 basis points to 8.7% to raise upto another 470 crore.

The issue opened in January 11 and will close on February 11.