Amid signs of improvement in projects such as toll roads and wind, the credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has revised the infrastructure sector outlook to stable for the next financial year (FY19) from negative in the current fiscal year (FY18). However, the report noted that the sector is showing signs of stability even though it is still in stress.
As per the report titled ‘FY19 Infrastructure Outlook: Light at the End of the Tunnel’, toll roads projects came out of pressure during FY17 and going further have showed visible improvements in 2018. Besides, the rating agency highlighted that though the wind sector remained under performance, protection from fixed capacity charges and built up of reserves provide stability to the ratings.
Apart from the infrastructure, Ind-Ra also revised the outlook of telecom sector to negative-to-stable from negative. However, it expects that the sector continues to exhibit significant pressure on its average revenue per user despite industry consolidation and added that FY19 to remain a challenging year for incumbent telecom operators as reflected in Negative Outlook on the ratings. Further, it kept outlooks for thermal power, oil and gas, power, ports and airports to unchanged.