GMR Infrastructure will sell stakes in four operational road projects, monetise some of its industrial land holdings by the end of this fiscal year and use the proceeds to pay off debt, executive director Saurabh Chawla said.
The company, which owns and operates the international airports in Delhi, Hyderabad and Cebu in the Philippines, will shift the focus to expanding its existing airports and securing new projects in the same sector, he told ET.
GMR Infrastructure had consolidated debt of more than Rs 21,000 crore at the end of March, and Rs 11,000 crore of that was at the corporate level.
While the balance debt at project levels gets serviced through cash generated from operations, the company aims to become debt-free at the corporate level by the end of this financial year.
With the GMR Airports deal — it recently announced aRs 8,000 crore deal to sell a minority stake to the Tata Group, GIC and SSG Capital Management — the corporate debt will come down to Rs 3,000 crore. It plans to pay off this with the proceeds from the sale of the highways and industrial land.
In the airports sector, GMR has evinced interest in all the domestic projects under bidding.
Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia also offer a lot of opportunities. Sources said the company is in the race for a contract for the expansion of the Pattaya airport and the setting up an aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul hub.
“There is a management decision to grow our airports business. With the (investment from) Tata Group, GIC and SSG Capital Management, we should look at a much more aggressive play both domestically and internationally,” Chawla said.
Source: Economic Times