Lanco turns to CDR to keep projects on track

Believes that the CDR proposal will ensure timely completion of all ongoing projects as well mitigate expansion plans of Griffin Coal

Lanco Infratech Limited (LITL) on Saturday informed the stock exchanges it had initiated a process of corporate debt restructuring (CDR), by way of reference to the CDR Cell.

The CDR proposal is only in respect of LITL as a standalone entity and does not involve any of its subsidiaries/special purpose vehicles. “As of today, the fund-based exposure of working capital and short-term loans availed by LITL amounts to Rs 3,200 crore, while the non-fund based limits stand at Rs 4,300 crore,” the company said, in a communication to the stock exchanges.

Lanco believes this CDR proposal would ensure timely completion of all ongoing projects as well mitigate the expansion plans of Griffin Coal, the Australian coal mine they acquired in 2010.

“With the proposed restructuring, LITL is expecting to bring back the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) revenues to Rs 10,000 crore a year in a very short period of time,” Lanco claimed. The company’s EPC revenue in 2011-12 was Rs 8,600 crore. This had come down to Rs 4,741 crore in 2012-13. LITL’s EPC has an orderbook of Rs 26,000 crore, to be executed in the next two to three years.

“The current adverse macro-economic situation prevailing in India since the last 12 months has affected the performance of LITL’s EPC business as well as the subsidiary business. We expect this situation to remain for another 18-24 months,” Lanco said. 

 

The power-to-roads infrastructure company hopes that this restructuring proposal will also address the timely development of 6,240 megawatts capacity in the pipeline. Lanco blamed the macro-economic situation for the debt stress that the company is currently under.

 

“LITL's power subsidiaries with an installed capacity of about 1,000 megawatts had a profit of Rs.740 crore in 2010-11 but, today in spite of enhancing the capacity by five folds with the installed capacity of 4732 MW it has incurred a loss of Rs 671 crore in 2012-13. This is against the estimated PAT of Rs 3,475 crore for the 2012-13,” it said.