Fertiliser companies likely to register healthy profitability in FY21: Icra

29 Jul 2020 Evaluate

Icra Ratings in its latest report has said that fertiliser companies are likely to register healthy profitability in the current financial year (FY21) due to the robust fertiliser off-take by the farmers in the first quarter (Q1) coupled with strong growth visible across segments. The urea fertiliser sales volume witnessed an annual growth of 69%, Di-Ammonium Phosphate (115%), Complexes (120%), Muriate of Potash (70%) and Single Super Phosphate (43%). It said that in the initial phase of the lockdown, dispatches were affected due to the shortage of labour and shutdown of a few fertiliser plants located in the integrated chemical complexes. However, with relaxations provided by the local authorities and safety norms implemented by the companies, the operations were restored in April.

It added fertiliser production and dispatches remained largely unaffected owing to their classifications as essential commodities. The report said the subsidy inflow from the government, however, has been slow after a sizeable chunk being paid out in April. The subsidy inflow in May and June has been low and the working capital borrowings of the companies are expected to rise given the increase in the fertiliser sales volume not being supported by an equivalent increase in the subsidy payout by the government. However, the report said with market collections being much better than the prior periods, the liquidity position of the phosphatic fertiliser companies is expected to be much better given a smaller component 30% of their overall realisation coming from the subsidy.

However, urea players would witness a significant increase in the working capital borrowings as subsidy forms a major portion of 70% of their realisations. Going forward, the subsidy budget for financial year 2021 is expected to remain inadequate to meet requirements for the year, resulting in an increase in the backlog for the industry. Thus, toward the second half of financial year 2021, Icra expects the working capital borrowings for the fertilisers companies to increase resulting in the moderation of the credit profile.

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