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GMR Hyderabad airport to see ₹2,500-cr capacity expansion
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd is poised for a capital expenditure of about ?2,500 crore towards expansion of the greenfiled airport from the present capacity to handle 12 million passengers per annum to 20 mppa.
The airport is already functioning at more than its capacity to handle about a million passengers a month with 2016 witness to over 15 million passengers, registering a growth of over 20 per cent in a calendar year.
Expansion plans
The Hyderabad airport is in the process of finalising its expansion project that would enhance the capacity to 20 million passengers a year.According to India Ratings & Research, a Fitch group company, to expand the capacity to 20 mppa, the airport will require an outlay of ?2,500 crore, of which 70 per cent will be through debt and the balance through internal accruals and equity.
The airport has been witness to a strong traffic volume growth of 22 per cent. There is also the possibility of the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority enforcing the new aero charges from October 2017. This will possibly mean higher revenues.
Rating upgrade
India Ratings Associate Director Siva Subramanian told BuisnessLine, “The credit rating upgrade to stable reflects higher than expected growth of 22 per cent during financial year 2017 in passenger volumes. There are indicators to point that the growth is likely to sustain the current level.”All of the airport bank loans of ?1,286.4 crore, external commercial borrowings of $73.15 million, fund-based facilities of ?550 crore and two non-fund based Rs. 750 crore each have been upgraded by the rating agency to Ind AA, giving Outlook Stable. This means it will be able to easily access debt, refinance and raise funds through bonds.
SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL, said in a recent statement, “As interim measures to manage the current traffic growth, reorientation of various passenger check points within the terminal is being tried and undertaken.”
The airport reported the highest passenger growth among four private airports and its cargo volumes growth was at 10 per cent over previous financial year.
Revenue growth
The airport revenue increased to ?1,156 crore in FY 2017 from ?645 crore in FY 2016, due to increase in traffic and resumption in ad hoc user development fee collections.There have been reports about the developers holding parleys to divest part of their stake to a sovereign debt fund from Abu Dhabi, which has been active in India.
The greenfield airport has been developed by GMR in partnership with Airports Authority of India (13 per cent), Telangana government (13 per cent) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11 per cent). Andrew Billings Authentic Jersey
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