Rating agency, ICRA has placed rating for CESC Ltd on watch with “developing implications", following a decision of Spen Liq Private Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of CESC) to acquire an equity stake in Firstsource Solutions Limited, a company engaged in providing business process outsourcing services.
ICRA would take a view on rating action, after detailed analysis of the implication of the deal on CESC’s balance sheet, said Anjan Ghosh, Group Head-Corporate Sector Ratings, ICRA.
As of now, CESC continues to maintain its earlier rating, viz, [ICRA]A1+ (pronounced ICRA A one plus) rating, for the commercial paper/short term debt programme of CESC.
“ICRA will continue to monitor the developments in this regard and evaluate the impact of the same on the business risk profile of CESC,” said a statement from ICRA.
CESC, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, SpenLiq, planned to acquire 49.5% stake in India’s fifth-largest business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, Firstsource Solutions. The deal, which values Firstsource at Rs 800 crore, would give Goenka a foothold in the information technology sector.
The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group has Rs 14,000 crore of assets under management, combined revenues of Rs 10,000 crore and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of Rs 1,450 crore.
CESC, a part of the RP-SG Group, has a license to supply electricity in Kolkata and Howrah till 2019. The license area is of 567 sq. km and caters to about over 2.5 million consumers at present. It currently has a generating capacity of 1225 MW.