JSW Port’s CARE Rating upgraded from Long Term Bank Facilities to ‘CARE-AA’

The CARE Ratings upgrade coincides with the completion of JSW Port’s large capex cycle entailing approximately ₹4,000 crores (high cost long term Rupee debt) invested over the last five years. Out of this, the company has already repaid more than ₹2800 crore including the above stated long term Rupee debt.

“JSW Ports is now amongst the highly rated private sector port companies in India and part of US$ 22 billion JSW Group,” read a statement from the company.

The capex helped JSW Infrastructure in building a total cargo handling capacity of 153 MTPA and establish a prominent presence across major and non-major ports on east and west coasts of India.

“The company is focusing on ramping up capacity utilization, thereby generating higher revenue and EBIDTA on the same capital base,” the statement said.

JSW ports has steadily increased its capacity utilization from 30% at the start of its expansion cycle in FY17 to 50% at the close of FY22 sequentially increasing the same over the years. It is poised to achieve a utilization rate of 60-65% in the current financial year.

“JSW Infrastructure has emerged as one of the most reliable port developers and operators in the country. Through our business profile de-risking and deleveraging efforts over the past few years, we have built a strong balance sheet in the sector with very healthy key financial ratios of Net Debt/Equity and Net Debt/EBITDA. This has created large headroom for us to embark on our further growth journey to reach newer highs in the business,” said Lalit Singhvi, Director & CFO of JSW Infrastructure Limited.

The company’s customer composition has broadened with an increase in third party customer cargo from a humble 5% in 2017 and now stands tall at 30% of its cargo profile. “The company is continuously striving to further enhance the run rates for capacity utilization and third-party customer cargo in the overall cargo profile.”

Earlier this year, JSW Infrastructure raised funds through a debut US$ 400 Million Sustainability Linked Bond issue, the first of its kind in the Port sector. This was prudently utilized to refinance their high-cost debt exposure from the Indian banking consortium capitalizing on the Interest cost and elongation of the debt servicing. Notably, the bond issuance was rated at BB+/Ba2 by Fitch and Moodys.

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