Corporate: Pangs of High Leverage

With the post-lockdown economy still to pick up, highly leveraged companies are looking at ways to reduce debt

- NEVIN JOHN

Vital statistics often hide more than they re-veal. India’s 20 most-leveraged private sector companies, excluding those that have filed for bankruptcy, have a combined debt of ₹15.4 lakh crore — almost half of the government’s budget expenditure planned for FY21. The first five companies in the pecking order — Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Tata Steel — account for ₹7.7 lakh crore, according to the latest available numbers for FY19.

Even though they do not represent FY20 numbers since most firms are yet to finalise their annual reports, the debt burden of most companies is unlikely to see an erosion, except Reliance Industries, which recently got ₹1.16 lakh crore from foreign investors by selling 24.7 per cent stake in subsidiary Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL). All the other companies in the pecking order are yet to come up with their debth-handling plans at a time when uncertainty surrounds the Indian economy. In the past, many of the high debtors in the list — Reliance Communications, Bhushan Steel, Essar Steel, Videocon, Lanco Infra and Jaiprakash Associates — had defaulted on loans and filed for bankruptcy. A few promoters lost their firms and some went for liquidation.

Not The Right Time

At present, it is difficult to service loans due to consecutive lockdowns. Companies that have availed the six-month moratorium offered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will have to pay the principal and interest at the same time once the freeze is lifted after August. Bankers are worried since some of these companies are yet to achieve normalcy in cash flows.