Cox & Kings hits record low after payment default

Cox & Kings was locked in 5% lower circuit at Rs 32.95 at 09:39 IST on BSE after the company announced that it had defaulted on its repayment obligation toward unsecured commercial papers.

The announcement was made after market hours on yesterday, 1 July 2019.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up by 23.75 points, or 0.06% to 39,710.25.

On the BSE, 83,000 shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 2.93 lakh shares in the past two weeks.

The stock opened with a downward gap of 5% at Rs 32.95 and remained stuck at that level so far. It is also its record low level.

It hit a 52-week high of Rs 211.90 on 31 October 2018.

Cox & Kings said that out of aggregate amount of Rs 65 crore, Rs 15 crore has been paid and the balance amount of Rs 50 crore has not been paid.

The company said it has been meeting its liability obligations. However, due to a cash flow mis-match and a situation exacerbated by rating downgrade, the company proposes to meet its financial obligations through a combination of internal accruals and monetisation of assets. The company is working towards plans to make good its obligations.

Further, the company said that its working capital situation stretched in the last few months and was further impacted due to its inability to replace the short term loans with long term loans / regular working capital lines. The company is taking all required measures to resolve the temporary cash flow mismatch. It is evaluating each business and identifying ways to improve operational performance.

The company is focusing on cash flow generation from each business and working at the highest priority to free working capital. The company will also be approaching its lenders to work out some time bound program to meet this emergency. For the benefit of all its stakeholders, the company asserts that it has robust operating businesses. It has a thriving and highly valuable hybrid hotels business in Meininger. It has a niche business in Leisure International. The firm is also an emerging player in the visa processing services business. Each of these businesses carries high intrinsic value. In the circumstances above, the company requests the co-operation and understanding of all its stakeholders, including employees, franchisees, shareholders, lenders, vendors and other partners; as it works to restore the value in the legacy brand.

In a separate announcement, Cox & Kings announced that Care Ratings and Brickwork Ratings India had revised the ratings of various instrument issued by the company. The downgrades were triggered due to delay in servicing of obligations with respect with to some of commercial papers of the company.

Care Ratings revised the credit rating of the issuer, the company's long term facilities worth Rs 1760 crore and the non convertible debenture issue worth Rs 525 crore to CARE BB, Stable from CARE AA- Stable. The credit rating of the Commercial Paper Issue worth Rs 375 crore and Rs 1685 crore has been revised from CARE A+ to CARE D and CARE A4, respectively.

Brickwork Ratings India revised the credit rating of the Commercial Paper Issue worth Rs 375 crore and Rs 1685 crore has been revised to BWR D from BWR A1+. The rating of the non convertible debenture issue worth Rs 50 crore has been revised to BWR C from BWR AA-, Stable.

On a consolidated basis, Cox & Kings reported a net loss of Rs 499.72 crore in Q4 March 2019 as compared to a net loss of Rs 46.86 crore in Q4 March 2018. Net sales rose 6.4% to Rs 1258.52 crore in Q4 March 2019 over Q4 March 2018.

Cox & Kings is the oldest travel company in the world and also one of the leading leisure travel groups with operations across continents. The company operates in two key verticals: leisure and hybrid hotels.

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