Idfc Plans Rs 1200 Crore Mop-Up This Year

The Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd. (IDFC) today said that it would be raising about Rs 1,200 crore this year and announced its decision to look at lending and supporting infrastructure projects in oil and gas transport, health, tourism and education.

It also said that it would look at transportation sector comprising roads, ports, railways, and airports as a priority sector and limit its exposure to telecom.

IDFC, which had its fifth annual general meeting in the city today, also approved a dividend of 10 per cent, a payout of Rs 1 per equity share against 7 per cent last year. The total income of IDFC for 2001-02 increased 29 per cent to Rs 405.30 crore from Rs 314.90 crore in the previous financial year, while profit after tax for the year increased 33 per cent to touch Rs 186 crore compared with Rs 140.44 crore for 2000-01.

Nasser Munjee, managing director and CEO, told newspersons that IDFC was looking at limiting its exposure to telecom as there was enough private capital to sustain the sector's growth in the country.

"We cannot be a long-term player in telecom. The sector is now able to attract money on its own and though telecom has helped us it is time for us to look at other sectors" Munjee said.

"In two years, IDFC will focus on transportation and there will be a lot of thrust in looking at projects that have to do with roads, airports, railways and ports, apart from looking at the new areas of education, tourism, health and oil and gas" he said.

IDFC's cumulative outstanding approvals aggregated Rs 6,486 crore and cumulative outstanding disbursements, inclusive of non-funded commitments, was Rs 2,851 crore. Total exposure to infrastructure projects was Rs 5,736 crores and the telecommunications sectors accounted for the largest chunk of disbursements with a share of 37.26 per cent, followed by energy and transportation at 29.43 per cent and 27.70 per cent respectively.

IDFC also said that it had been given a rating of AAA by Crisil and this follows the AAA rating accorded to it by ICRA. This IDFC said would allow it to raise money from the markets without any glitch and said that it had raised about Rs 100 crores in the last one week through the issuance of non convertible debentures.