Developers sell 52 road projects worth Rs 37,019 crore in 2015-2018 on liquidity crisis: ICRA

22 Mar 2019 Evaluate

ICRA in its latest report has said that as many as 52 road projects worth Rs 37,019 crore were sold between 2015 and 2018 on account of liquidity crisis faced by their promoters or the special purpose vehicles executing them. Of the total 52 projects, 6 were sold at a discount, while the remaining projects were sold at a premium ranging between 2 and 21%. It mentioned that M&As in the road sector, which saw an improvement post-relaxation of the exit policy in May 2015, has seen slowdown after mid-2016, possibly due to the introduction of the toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model.

The report further highlighted most road projects gave low returns to promoters. Developers with a weak credit profile sold their assets at a loss due to liquidity crisis more. It added that the change of ownership has significantly improved the refinancing ability of these projects. Moreover, it said many projects have refinanced debt with longer tenure and lower interest rate. Around one-third of the assets saw steep rating upgrades, the median upward rating transition in these cases is five notches.

Besides, it also stated that execution of projects grew at an annual growth rate of 23% between FY14 and FY18 and stood at 6,715 km during the first nine months of FY19. On the hybrid annuity projects, it noted that around 60% contracts awarded have achieved financial closure till date with private sector banks taking lead as many state-run banks are under principal component analysis. For around 34% of total HAM awards, there is a delay in announcing the appointed date, despite achieving financial closure due to the lack of possession of 80% of the right of way. Meanwhile, the raging agency in report mentioned stable outlook for the sector given the significant pipeline of projects to be awarded which will boost the order book of road developers/EPC contractors.

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