Bidar airport to be operationlised under UDAN scheme in Karnataka

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited(GHIAL) has signed the concession agreement to the commission, operationalise and maintain the civilian enclave at the Bidar Airport in North Karnataka. The concession agreement was signed under the Government of India's regional connectivity-UDAN scheme.

GHIAL is expected to start the airport operations this week with the operations of one daily flight connecting Bidar with Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka. GHIAL executive director S G K Kishore said the start of commercial operations at Bidar will provide a boost to the local economy through better connectivity for the people of Bidar and a large number of tourists who visit the area.

Located in the north-eastern part of Karnataka, Bidar is home to important religious shrines and historic monuments including Guru Nanak Jhira Sahib, and renowned for Bidriware metal handicraft products, which have been recognised with the geographical indication(GI) tag.

GMR Infrastructure suffers Rs 2,341-cr loss in Q4 due to impairment hit

The company reported Rs 4.81 crore profit after tax during the same quarter in FY18.

Consolidated total income stood at Rs 2293.63 crore during the quarter under discussion against Rs 2234.88 crore in the same quarter in FY18, it said.

GMR booked an impairment loss of Rs 1,242.72 crore in the value of Group's investment in GMR Energy Ltd and its subsidiaries/joint ventures , while it has accounted Rs 969.58 crore as impairment loss for GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd an associate of the Group, total Rs 2212.30 crore.

GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Limited ('GCEL') is engaged in development and operation of 2 X 685 MW coal based power project and had declared commercial operations of Unit I on November 1, 2015 and Unit II on March 31, 2016 of its 1,370 MW coal based thermal power plant at Raipur district Chhattisgarh.

GCEL docs not have any long-term PP currently and has been incurring losses since the commencement of its commercial operations and has accumulated losses of Rs 4,228.51 crore as on March 31, 2019.

GMR's Airport segment reported Rs 1357.44 crore revenues with Rs 271.02 profit in Q4FY19.

It garnered against Rs 1215.06 crore revenues in Q4FY18 with Rs 1,215.06 profit.

Passenger traffic at Delhi Airport grew by 5 per cent YoY to 69.2 million passengers in FY19 from 65.7 million in FY18.

It generated Cash Profit of Rs 885 crore in FY19 against Rs 807 crore in FY18.

Hyderabad Airport passenger traffic grew by 16 per cent YoY to 21.4 million in FY19 from 18.3 million in FY18.

Mactan Cebu Airport in Philippines generated Cash Profit of Rs 359 crore in FY19 as against Rs 216 crore in FY 18.

Tatas check into airport business, buy stake in GMR as part of consortium

The GMR group is selling 46 per cent share in its airport business to a three-member consortium that includes the Tatas in Rs 8,000-crore deal to reduce its debt. The deal will give India's largest conglomerate indirect stakes in seven airports in India and abroad.

The deal values GMR's airport business at Rs 22,475 crore.

The Tata group runs airlines, charters and aviation catering business but its efforts to own and operate airports were unsuccessful till now. It had expressed interest for Navi Mumbai airport and projects but did not bid for them.

While GMR had been in discussions with Singapore’s GIC and SSG Capital Management to sell stake in airports for a while, Tatas joined the fray two months ago.

On Wednesday, the GMR group said it had signed a binding term-sheet with the three entities to sell stake in GMR Airports Limited (GAL), its holding company for airports. The deal includes fresh share sale of Rs 1,000 crore to new investors and secondary sale share of Rs 7,000 crore.

Tatas will own 20 per cent stake while GIC and SSG will hold 15 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively. While GMR will retain management control, new investors will get board seats. GMR will give an exit to private equity investors who own 5.8 per cent stake in GAL.

After the share sale, the group plans to demerge the airport vertical into a separate listed entity as this will enable it to attract more investors and get better valuation. “This will create two mirror entities, and with the same shareholding structure. This will not be unfair to the minority investors,” said Saurabh Chawla, executive director (finance and strategy).

GMR group retains 54 per cent stake now and can increase it to 62 per cent over the next five years, which will value the airports business at Rs 22,475 crore. This will be based on certain commercial milestones and GMR will receive fresh shares in GAL.

Sushil Kumar Modi, chief financial officer (strategic finance) of GMR group, said the firm will not have to raise much debt to fund its expansion plans and can tap cash flows from real estate monetisation and non-aeronautical revenues like duty-free sales from airports.

At the consolidated level, the company has a debt of Rs 20,000 crore and it will reduce it to Rs 12,000 crore after the transaction. The group will spend Rs 14,000-15,000 crore to increase capacity at Delhi and Hyderabad airports and would need an additional Rs 4,000 crore for Goa and Nagpur airports.

GMR runs airports in Delhi, Hyderabad, and Cebu in Philippines, and has won bids for projects in Goa, Nagpur, Bhogapuram (Andhra Pradesh), and Crete (Greece).