Tata Motors' consolidated debt at Rs 47,149 cr

Tata Motors' consolidated debt during the last financial year increased 44 per cent to Rs 47,149 crore on account of a series of long-term borrowings.

It was Rs 32,811 crore in March 2011, the company said in its annual report for 2011-12. Of this, the long-term debt went up 62 per cent to Rs 27,962 crore as on March 31 from Rs 17,256 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

Highly profit-making British subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) debt also increased substantially by 47 per cent. "The borrowings of Jaguar Land Rover as on March 31, 2012 stood at £1,848 million (Rs15,065 crore) (previous year £1,260 million (Rs9,007 crore)," the report said.

The consolidated net automotive debt to equity ratio stood at 0.25:1 as on March 31, compared to 0.56:1 on March 31, 2011, the company said. On its borrowing strategy: "Tata Motors group has undertaken and will continue to implement suitable steps for raising long-term resources to match fund requirements and to optimise its loan maturity profile."

On a standalone basis, Tata Motors' debt stood at Rs15,881 crore as against Rs15,915 crore earlier.

Talking about cash reserves, the company said its consolidated cash and bank balances stood at Rs18,238 crore last year, compared to Rs11,410 crore in FY11. On a standalone basis, it was Rs1,841 crore as against Rs2,429 crore. For JLR, cash and bank balances stood at £2,563 million (Rs20,891 crore) as against £1,028 million (Rs7,349 crore), resulting in negative net debt position.

Elaborating on various fund-raising activities, the report said: "During the year, the company raised syndicated foreign currency term loans of $500 million in accordance with the guidelines on external commercial borrowings. The amount was raised in two tranches with tenors from four to seven years for financing its general capital expenditure and investments in its foreign subsidiaries.

Besides, Tata Motors issued rated, listed, unsecured and non-convertible debentures of Rs500 crore with maturities of five-seven years in May 2012, to optimise the loan maturity profile.

In the case of JLR, the marque had issued £1,000 million equivalent of senior notes in May 2011.

"This facility gave Jaguar Land Rover an access to long tenor funding while also diversifying its sources of funding," the annual report said.

Also, in March, JLR had issued £500 million senior notes due for 2020. "This was an opportunistic fund-raising that enabled JLR to reinforce its market acceptance and demonstrated the confidence of the investors, while continuing to support steps taken towards strengthening capital structure and enhancing the debt maturity profile," the company said.

Besides, JLR had "established three-five year committed revolving credit facility totalling £710 million" during the last financial year.

These lines, which have been availed from 13 banks, can be drawn according to requirement and is a step to further strengthen the capital structure, the report said.

Tata Motors Finance Ltd had also raised Rs155 crore by an issue of unsecured, non-convertible and subordinated perpetual debentures to meet its growth strategy and improve its capital adequacy ratio.