GMR to sell four road projects to pay debt

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GMR Infrastructure will sell stakes in four operational road project and monetize part of industrial land holdings in India to pay-off debt. GMR is planning to complete the sale in 2019. GMR owns and operates international airports in Delhi, Hyderabad and Cebu in the Philippines, and will shift the focus of the business to expanding its existing airports and securing the new airport projects.

GMR Infrastructure had a consolidated debt of more than INR 210,000 million (US$ 3060.6 million) at the end of March 2019, and INR 110,000 million (US$ 1630 million) of that was at the corporate level. Recently GMR has announced INR 80,0000 million (US$ 1165.8 million) airport deal with TATA group, GIC and SSG Capital Management. Which will reduce the corporate debt to INR 30,000 million (US$ 437.18 million). GMR is planning to pay off this with the proceeds from the sale of the highways and industrial land. 

The four road projects on sale are Hyderabad-Vijayawada Expressway, Ambala-Chandigarh Expressway, Pochannpalli Expressway, and the Chennai Outer Ring Road. The first two are toll projects while the remaining two are on the annuity model. The two projects based on annuity have a short span of contract left while there is decent growth in traffic on the toll projects.

Besides the four highways, the company will be looking to monetize some land in its special economic zone in Kakinada and other industrial areas like Krishnagiri. 

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