~7,100-crore DMRC claim to help Rinfra pare debt
Reliance Infrastructure (Rinfra) on Tuesday said the ~7,100 crore that the company will receive from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) as part of settlement of an arbitral case would be utilised for deleveraging its balance sheet.
Anil Ambani, chairman, Reliance Infrastructure, said in the annual general meeting (AGM) on Tuesday, “Reliance Infrastructure has won against Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.”
The Supreme Court upheld an arbitral award in favour of Delhi Airport Metro Express (DAMEPL) — a Reliance Infra arm that used to operate the Delhi Airport Metro line.
As a result of the apex court judgment, DAMEPL will receive ~7,100 crore from DMRC that would be utilised to repay the debt of Reliance Infra. Rinfra’s consolidated debt was ~14,260 crore; its standalone debt was ~3,808 crore as of March 2021. Recently, it raised ~550 crore from the promoter group and VSFI Holding Pte — an affiliate of Värde Investment Partners, LLP.
Last year, Reliance Infra completed the full stake sale of Delhi-agra Toll Road to Cube Highways and Infrastructure III Pte for ~3,600 crore.
The apex court also issued a notice to DMRC on the Airport Express’ plea to continue servicing the debt of the special purpose vehicle (SPV), pending the Supreme Court’s disposal of the petition.
The SPV borrowed ~1,600 crore from 11 banks, including Axis Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Andhra Bank, and Central Bank of India.
Ambani said Reliance Infra’s new growth engines would be power distribution business as the new Electricity Act will be opening up a plethora of opportunities, new contracts in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) as well as defence manufacturing.
Ambani also said Reliance Power (Rpower) reduced debt by ~3,100 crore in 2020-21. The company further expects to reduce debt of nearly ~3,200 crore in 2021-22. This would improve debt: equity ratio to 1.80:1. He said this ratio would be among the lowest in the power sector.
Rpower, which operates the Sasan ultra mega power plant in Madhya Pradesh, said the unit recorded a plant load factor of 96 per cent during FY21. Ambani added the allied coal mine with the plant had an annual coal production of 18.6 million tonnes, making it the largest private sector coal producer in the country.
Rpower has an operational portfolio of 6,000 Mw of coalpowered units. It has planned a capex of nearly ~3,200 crore to install Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD’S) in its coalbased plants. In June, the company’s shareholders approved preferential issue of 59.50 crore equity shares of ~10 each and 73 crore warrants, convertible into equity shares of ~10 each, amounting to ~1,325 crore.
With this, Reliance Infrastructure and other promoters’ shareholding in the company has gone up to 24.98 per cent. It would further increase to 38.24 per cent post conversion of warrants, said Ambani.