HCC Q2 net profit drops 50% to Rs 12 crore

Infrastructure major Hindustan Construction Company's standalone net profit fell by 49.74 per cent to Rs 11.60 crore for the quarter ended on September 30, 2017, compared to that of Rs 23.08 crore in the same quarter of last fiscal. Total income during the July-September quarter rose to Rs 1,031.93 crore, from Rs 972.01 crore in the year-ago period, HCC said in a filing to the BSE. Total expenses too increased to Rs 1,014.43 crore in the quarter over Rs 939.35 crore in the year-ago period. HCC Group CFO Praveen Sood said, "Volatility in the banking sector had delayed the securing of limits for project working capital and CCEA receivables, which has impacted in the short term our ability to ramp up turnover and achieve material repayment of debt. With most Lenders now having sanctioned support, we expect a pickup in project execution of our significant order backlog, faster receipt of arbitration award receivables and material reductions in finance cost in the coming quarters." The company said it currently has Rs 4,273 crore of arbitration awards in its favour, of which HCC has procured letters from government agencies for immediate release of Rs 1,930 crore (pursuant to the recent Cabinet order), of which Rs 1,097 crore has already been received. HCC secured two new orders worth Rs 1,574 crore in this quarter and was the lowest bidder in a project worth Rs 254 crore. The order book is at Rs 21,523 crore as of date, the company said. About the performance of its subsidiaries, HCC said Steiner AG achieved a revenue of CHF 196.7 million (Rs 1,306.9 crore) in the second quarter compared to CHF 212.2 million (Rs 1,464.1 crore) in the previous year. The net profit stood at CHF 2.9 million (Rs 19.3 crore) compared to CHF 2.0 million (Rs 13.8 crore) in the previous year, it said and added the subsidiary secured fresh orders worth CHF 136.5 million (Rs 924.9 crore). About HCC Concessions Ltd, the daily collections for Baharampore Farakka Highways Ltd and Farakka Raiganj Highways Ltd under it for Q2 FY 2017-18 have been Rs 34 lakh and Rs 33.2 lakh, respectively. "For Badarpur Faridabad Tollway Ltd (BFTL), a termination notice was issued by the Company to NHAI on September 1, 2017 along with a request for termination payment in lieu of the Supreme Court imposition of environmental charges, effectively preventing commercial vehicle traffic movement into Delhi, which constitutes a political force majeure event," the company said. About its arm Lavasa Corporation, the company said that the Joint Lenders Forum, as part of a comprehensive solution, has invoked Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) in Lavasa Corporation Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiaries Warasgaon Assets Maintenance Limited and Warasgaon Power Supply Limited. The SDR process will involve lowering of debt by converting a part of lenders loans into equity, the implementation of a fresh business plan and the induction of new investors into the project within the timelines prescribed by RBI in its notification, it said. "The lenders also noted that due to delay in implementation of the earlier JLF approved structure, the project remained stalled for two years and an additional interest of around Rs.1200 crore was accumulated, and hence release of working capital for the project needs to be resolved on priority," the company said.