Mercator Unveils 2018 Business Results

Mercator, one of India’s diversified conglomerates with interests in coal, oil and gas, shipping and dredging, yesterday released the Standalone and Consolidated Unaudited Financial Results and Limited Review Report for the quarter/nine months ended December 31, 2018.

Image source: Mercator

At their yesterday’s meeting, the company’s Board of Directors has accorded its in-principle approval for conversion of loan and interest receivable thereon from one of its wholly owned overseas subsidiary – Mercator International Pte. Limited, Singapore – to the extent of the amount outstanding as on the proposed record date into Non- Cumulative Redeemable Preference Shares (NCRPS) as a part of its restructuring exercise at the group level.

The current amount outstanding as at December 31, 2018, is Rs.387.43 crore ($55.51 million).

Commenting the latest announcement, Shalabh Mittal, CEO of Mercator, said: “During this quarter, we have taken firm steps towards balance sheet de-leveraging and it continues to remain our key strategic priority. We have taken some hard cal ls to exit loss-making ships and have utilized those sale proceeds to reduce debt.”

“We will continue the process in the coming months. Our Coal and Oil & Gas businesses are ramping up well and are performing in-line with our expectation. Additionally, the capacity enhancement for the Coal 3 rd party logistics segment is on track and should drive growth in FY20.

“Our investments in Tier 1 assets have started delivering returns and we are well poised for strong future growth.”

Dredging

  • Order pipel ine stands at INR 292 Crores ($41.1 million) at the end of Q3 FY19, of which INR 59 crores ($8.3 million) is to be executed in Q4 FY19 itself;
  • Q3 FY19 EBITDA in line with expectations due to planned maintenance of 2 dredgers;
  • Dredging order book up 2.5x between Ql FY19 to Q3 FY19, driven by new tenders;
  • The demerger of dredging business is kept in abeyance till build-up of a large sized order book.