Shipping Corporation of India plans to raise $500-600 mln in FY12 through ECBs

Shipping Corporation of India, India's largest shipping services firm, plans to raise $500-600 million through external commercial borrowings in FY12 to fund expansion, a top executive told reporters late on Monday, Reuters reports. "Every year we go in for some external commercial borrowings, we have so far been able to pick up finances at very good rates," B.K. Mandal, director (finance) said.


For FY12, the company has earmarked a capex of 37.6 billion rupees, and expects to add 17 ships during the year to its existing fleet of 79 vessels.


The firm has lined up a capex of $1.6 billion till 2015/16 for 31 vessels on order having a total capacity of 2.02 million DWT.


Mandal said the firm typically funds 80 percent of its annual capex through borrowings.


The shipping firm reported a net loss of 61.7 million rupees for the March quarter, compared with a net profit of 1.36 billion rupees a year ago, as its liner segment slipped into the red during the reporting quarter.


However, it reported a 50.5 percent jump in FY11 net profit to 5.67 billion rupees.
(Source:http://en.portnews.ru)