Indian companies with outstanding foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) are likely to see a decline of 17 per cent in their net worth and 11 per cent in profitability as credit crunch and following down turn in the stock markets have pushed their stock price about 50 per cent below the price for conversion in to equity.
This is result from a research conducted by Crisil Research, a division of the Mumbai based credit rating agency, on top 500 companies listed with India’s two leading stock exchanges. There are 99 such companies in the top 500 list which have issues FCCBs. The redemption of cumulative outstanding FCCBs of these companies is expected to touch Rs 32,000 crore by 2012.
Indian banking regulator the Reserve Bank of India has allowed Indian companies for pre mature buy back of these bonds up to $100 million using Indian currency. According to the report, this is going to have very limited impact on the companies.
CRISIL Research expects most of these companies to go in for redemption of FCCBs, “as they would not have sufficient cash for buyback and these bonds are thinly traded,” said Sridhar Chandrasekhar, head of research at the credit rating agency in the report.
Companies from pharmaceutical, tele communication, steel and steel products related industries are top on the list of FCCB issuing companies. “Some of these companies operate in sectors such as steel and commercial vehicles, which are likely to witness a sharp dip in their profits due to the global economic slowdown,” said the report highlighting the tough circumstances before the companies.
Orchid Chemical & Pharmaceuticals and Tata Motors are some of such companies from these sectors.
The companies who are not able to raise the debt for redemption at the time of the maturity of the bonds would have to reset the conversion price at lower rate. This would make the companies dilute larger stake and remains as the last option.
According to experts, RBI's decision to increase the limit for premature buy-back of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs), using Indian currency, to $100 million from $50 million earlier would have limited impact. According to them, the biggest hindrance is the unavailability of sellers and a scarcity of funds with Indian companies. An analyst has estimated that around 185 companies issued FCCBs worth $20 billion from 2004-05 to 2007-08.
