Shares of Gammon Infrastructure have been performing strongly over the past few days. Reports suggest that Brookfield is close to buyingthe remaining three assets of Gammon. Last, Brookfield had agreed to buy nine Gammon assets, of which six deals have already been closed. Gammon also reported fairly robust earnings on August 25.

Total income saw an increase of around 20 per cent to nearly ₹81 crore. BTVI spoke to KK Mohanty, MD, Gammon Infrastructure. Excerpts

Take us through your results and the reasons for the underlying margin performance.

On the basis of the new Accounting Standards, we are supposed to adopt new guidelines and prepare the accounts, for which the SEBI has given a relaxation.

It is up to us to publish a standalone result on a quarterly basis, and in the year-end, we can only adopt the consolidated account to new standards.

That is why, in this quarter, we published only the standalone account of Gammon Infrastructure.

So, there has been a slight increase in the top-line which is an order of ₹80 crore.

That is on account of one of our projects which is being completed at a faster pace and some interesting accounts.

The total around the topline is ₹85 crore compared with ₹60 crore or so earlier.

And there is an EBITDA of around 18 per cent with a profit of around ₹8 crore.

That is the quarterly results for the standalone account. And all other operational projects have not been published or audited because of the relaxation given.

How was the traffic growth in Q1? Could you also give some idea on the price-growth impact.

The traffic has not been significantly increasing in the recent times.

Though in the previous 3-4 years it was absolutely stagnant or moving down, in recent times there has been a slight increase in traffic, but it is not as good as what we saw in 2007-2009. We expected a growth of 5-10 per cent in the toll project. But that time has not come.

And regarding the value, it is a market force.

As there are very few buyers, the price of the assets are not looking very attractive. Besides one of those few deals we did in the recent times, there is hardly any deal happening in the market.

Have you seen any increase in toll-pricing this quarter?

Toll-pricing is governed by the concession agreement. It is decided by the WPI (Wholesale Price Index).

The WPI, in recent times, is moving downwards. So how can the price go up? The price will never go up unless the WPI goes up. Yes, the volume of collection can go up if the traffic is more.

There has been 3-4 per cent increase in few of the toll booths, but there is no significant increase.

The traffic has really not increased over a period of last 5-6 years.

But it has been showing some signs of increase, 3-4 per cent, in the the last couple of months or quarters.

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