GMR Hyderabad airport to launch offer to buy back $140 million of bonds
GMR Hyderabad International Airport is a step-down subsidiary of the listed GMR Airports Infrastructure Limited. It is the majority shareholder of Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad.
The company had issued bonds worth $300 million in 2019 which are maturing in 2024. It subsequently issued another set of bonds worth $300 million that are maturing in 2026.
The exercise to buy back bonds is being done to refinance the existing debt at lower cost and extend maturity of the debt given the improved credit profile of the Hyderabad airport unit.
GMR had not responded to ET’s queries until publication of the story.
HSBC is the manager of the tender offer. It is also the sole arranger for the debt which will be raised for the tender process. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas are the legal advisers.
Ratings agency Fitch in a note released on 19 January rated the Hyderabad units credit at BB+. It also upgraded the outlook for the company’s ability to service its long term debt to stable from negative.
Fitch noted that the domestic air traffic in Hyderabad reached about 80% of pre-Covid-19 levels in December 2021. “Fitch expects passenger traffic to reach pre-pandemic levels by end-2024”, the note said.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited is promoted by the GMR Group (63 per cent), in partnership with Airports Authority of India (13 per cent), Government of Telangana (13 per cent), and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad Group (11 per cent).
The airport was commissioned in 2008 with an initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and 150,000 tonnes of cargo handling capacity per annum. The project has the flexibility to increase capacity, and is currently being expanded to accommodate over 34 MPPA.
The Hyderabad airport has been given to GMR on a 30 year concession. The company can also potentially extend the concession period by another 30 years. The airport also has rights over 1500 acres of land.
GMR has carried out a restructuring of its businesses that concluded with the spin-off of the non-airports business of the erstwhile
Limited into a new listed company which is called GMR Power and Urban Infra Limited in March. The erstwhile GMR Infrastructure Limited has been renamed GMR Airports Infrastructure and only houses the airports and related businesses.
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