Hindalco plans to prepay Rs 1,100cr debt this month

Hindalco Industries, an Aditya Birla Group company, plans to prepay another Rs 1,100-crore debt this month to further deleverage its balance sheet.
"We have already repaid Rs 7,815 crore and plan to repay another Rs 1,100 crore in the current month, which will save interest cost of Rs 800 crore in the current fiscal," Hindalco chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) here.
"In line with our stated objective to delverage the balance sheet, we have successfully raised USD 500 million through a qualified institutional placement (QIP).
"Along with the treasury balance this amount was utilised to prepay the existing borrowings. Consequently, there is a substantial improvement in consolidated net debt to EBITDA," Birla said.

The company's overseas subsidiary Novelis also refinanced USD 4.3 billion of its long term debt. The annual cash interest expense stands reduced by USD 79 million, he said.
In an environment of mixed economic signals, Hindalco's registered a record consolidated EBITDA at Rs 13,547 crore on a turnover of Rs 102,631 crore in FY 17.

Both aluminium and copper businesses in India and Novelis registered robust operational performance.
With the new coal linkage in FY2017, coal security improved to over 60 per cent of the annual requirement of the domestic aluminium business. In FY17, Gare Palma IV/4 Coal Mines and Gare Palma IV/5 Coal Mines (in Chhattisgarh) reached their peak capacity. The operations at Kathautia Mines commenced in February 2017, Birla said.

Going forward, the company plans to grow through downstream products and capacity expansion. The company's three large projects went on stream and the company will start getting benefit in coming years, he said.
Commenting on the outlook, Birla said the domestic demand for aluminium is expected to benefit from the infrastructure projects prioritised by the government.
The thrust on power sector augurs well for the company. Other segments also expected to see higher demand from automobile and food packaging industries, he added.