GMR Infra jumps as debt falls

On one hand, we have debt threatening to take down Rcom and on the other, good news came from another high debt company – GMR Infra. This company too which has been grappling with very high debt finally announced yesterday a turnaround in its performance thanks to debt reduction.

The company’s gross debt fell from Rs.37,480 crore to Rs.19,856 (YoY) at end of FY17. Its net debt to EBITDA ratio also improved from 10.2 to 4.3.

Its EBITDA for the year came in at Rs.3497 crore, up 12% and margins rose 400 bps to 42%. It was the airport unit which reported the best performance, with Delhi and Hyderabad airports declaring dividends too.

GMR ended the year with a net profit of Rs.9 crore v/s loss of Rs.2664 crore but this was before adding up the minority and share of associates. Once that was added up, it ended the fiscal in a loss at Rs.575 crore, much lower than FY16 loss of Rs.2713 crore.

The stock is the top gainer on the BSE, going up 15% to Rs.17.35, breaching the upper circuit. Its 52-week high is at Rs.18.60.