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In a bid to pay off its debts, Global Group is exploring all options to monetise assets that include selling off some ventures and roping in new investors across its portfolio of telecom companies. Separately, the group is also terminating a contract with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL).
The Global Group’s portfolio of telecom companies are infrastructure services firm GTL Ltd and shared passive telecom infrastructure firms GTL Infrastructure Ltd and Chennai Network Infrastructure Ltd (CNIL). It also has a presence in power.
“We are looking at selling some non-core assets, properties and businesses…. We may also have to form joint ventures or get new investors. We have some buyers who have shown keenness in our operations, but we need to the evaluate these in the larger interest of the lenders,” Global Group Chairman Manoj Tirodkar told BusinessLine .
GTL Infrastructure and CNIL have a portfolio of 28,000 telecom towers, while the group through its international business builds networks for telecom companies in about 8-10 countries in the US, UK, and APAC. However, he did not disclose details of the investors nor the specifics of their interest.
The group firms had run into debts and later Into Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) programme in 2011, following the turmoil in the telecom sector.
“Despite being in CDR, in the last four years the group has repaid about ₹4,000 crore in debt and has cleared all statutory dues and salaries up-to-date,” he said, adding these came in from Group’s ongoing operations.
The group’s EBITDA is at ₹1,200 crore, while it has total debt of about ₹10,000 crore. The group has an internal target of coming out of CDR by December 2015.
“We are working with banks and investors to see whether we could monetise and repay substantial amount of that debt,” he added.
GTL Urja GTL Urja, the power distribution franchisee for Aurangabad city, is terminating its contract with MSEDCL.
“There is an increase in power theft, while power tariffs are not increasing and our claims were not materialised properly. We can’t run an unprofitable business,” he said.
GTL Urja had made ₹100 crore losses in the last two quarters.
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