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SREI Infrastructure’s Hemant Kanoria Says Construction, Mining Loans Fell 30% In Last One Year

Cash flow mismatch at client-end has led to deterioration of credit profile, says SREI Infrastructure Chairman Hemant Kanoria.

Towers stands under construction among other residential and commercial buildings in the Lower Parel area of Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg Singh/Bloomberg)
Towers stands under construction among other residential and commercial buildings in the Lower Parel area of Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg Singh/Bloomberg)

SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd.’s loans toward construction and mining equipment fell 30 percent in the last one year, according to its Chairman Hemant Kanoria.

Very few disbursements are happening and that has brought down the construction equipment financier’s assets under management in the last few quarters, Kanoria told BloombergQuint at the India Economic Forum.

SREI Infrastructure Finance was recently downgraded by Brickworks Ratings to ‘A-’ on the back deteriorating credit profile of its top 20 borrowers and rising cost of borrowings.

Cash-flow mismatch at the client end has led to deterioration of credit profile, Kanoria said, adding that the top 20 clients account for just 15 percent of the book.

The construction equipment financier’s has also infused capital in its subsidiary SREI Equipment Financing, bringing down the gearing from 8.7 times to 6.5 times, Kanoria said, adding that the company is comfortable with debt ratio of 6-6.5 times.

WATCH | SREI Infra's Hemant Kanoria on challenges facing infrastructure sector

On Thursday, shares of SREI Infrastructure Finance rose 5.41 percent to Rs 8.38 apiece on the BSE while the benchmark Sensex shed 0.52 percent to end the day at 38,106.87 points.