Gammon India Q1 net loss widens to Rs 187.50-cr

Construction and engineering major Gammon India today reported widening of its standalone net loss to Rs 187.50 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, on poor sales and higher finance cost.
The company had posted a net loss of Rs 120.27 crore in the same period last year, it said in a BSE filing.
Net sales fell to Rs 744.23 crore during the quarter as compared to Rs 922.82 crore in the year-ago period.
The company's financial cost increased to Rs 172.35 crore during the quarter as against Rs 147.90 crore in the same period of the last fiscal.

"The company's operating result has been affected in the last few years by various factors including liquidity crunch, unavailability of resources on timely basis, delay in execution of projects, delay in land acquisition, approval of design by client, scarcity in availability of labour and material and operational issues," Gammon India said in the filing.
There are disputes in four projects of the company including the Chennai Metro Rail Corporation Project. The total exposure against these projects is Rs 446.92 crore and the company is pursuing legal recourse/negotiations for addressing the disputes, it added.

Stating that the company is exploring several options for overcoming the liquidity crisis, Gammon India further said, "The group is in the process of development of its land parcel as well as monetising its overseas investments and to divest its non-core business..."

The company is also in discussion with clients in overcoming bottlenecks in timely executing the existing projects and to increase the order book, it said, adding that the company is having a good order book in hand as on June 2015 of Rs 11,666 crore.
Gammon India also said the company's Board today approved a restructuring proposal for segregation of businesses.
"The said restructuring would be achieved by a scheme of arrangement for transfer of Civil EPC Undertaking and T&D Undertaking of Gammon India Ltd to its wholly owned subsidiaries viz. Gammon Retail Infrastructure and Ransrail Lighting Ltd, respectively," it said.