Anupam Rasayan clears debt worth Rs 530 cr from IPO proceeds

NEW DELHI: Chemicals maker Anupam Rasayan has repaid debt worth Rs 530 crore from the net proceeds of its recently completed initial public offering and will clear an additional Rs 30 crore debt by next quarter ending September, 2021.

The company had raised Rs 760 crore through its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Speaking to PTI, Anupam Rasayan Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and spokesperson Afzal Malkani said the company’s total debt is about Rs 840 crore.

The objective of the IPO was to raise Rs 760 crore, out of which Rs 560 crore was for repayment of the debt and the rest was for general corporate purposes, he said.

The company has repaid Rs 470 crore debt as on March 31, 2021 and another Rs 60 crore was repaid in the current quarter, he said and added that so far a total of Rs 530 crore debt has been cleared by the company.

“The remaining Rs 30 crore will be repaid either in the current or by next quarter ending September 2021,” he said.

A total of Rs 560 crore debt out of Rs 840 crore, will be cleared by the next quarter and the remaining debt will be on the company’s books, he added.

According to Malkani, the balance Rs 200 crore funds from the IPO proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes.

About Rs 160 crore has been set aside for cost reduction measures and the rest for working capital, he noted.

For instance, about Rs 40 crore funds is being utilised for installation of the solar panel which will help the company reduce its energy cost by Rs 10 crore annually, he explained.

On future plans, Malkani said the company’s focus till 2023-24 fiscal would be on fully utilising the existing capacity of the plants that were commercialised this year.

Anupam Rasayan had invested Rs 400 crore on two plants that were commercialised this year. In the current year, the company plans to utilise 75 per cent of the capacity of both the plants and in the following year utilize 90 per cent of the capacity, he said.

“Till FY’23, our growth will come from the newly commercialised units. Till 2023, we need not worry about the growth,” he said.

Malkani said that the company was growing at 34 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in the last three years and expects the momentum to continue.

“For that, we don’t even need capital expenditure. We may require capex for some minor modification and maintenance, which we can do from the company’s internal accruals,” he said.

Stating that there is scope for growth in the speciality chemicals business in India, Malkani said the company has already applied for a couple of products under the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme and will apply for a few more products next month.

However, this will yield results from the 2023-24 fiscal onwards, he added.

The global speciality chemicals market is growing at 11-12 per cent annually. India accounts for 2 per cent of the total market share, which indicates that there is huge scope for new business, he added.

Anupam Rasayan had posted a 52.50 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 70.3 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal, from Rs 53.20 crore in the previous year, as per a regulatory filing.

Shares of the company were trading at Rs 763.60 apiece, up 0.80 per cent on the BSE.