| Asian Energy Services Limited | ||||||
| Ratings continues on 'Watch Developing'; Rated amount enhanced for Bank Debt | ||||||
| Rating Action | ||||||
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| Note: None of the Directors on Crisil Ratings Limited’s Board are members of rating committee and thus do not participate in discussion or assignment of any ratings. The Board of Directors also does not discuss any ratings at its meetings. | ||||||
| 1 crore = 10 million | ||||||
| Refer to Annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities |
Detailed Rationale Crisil Ratings has continued its ratings on the bank facilities of Asian Energy Services Limited (AESL; part of the Asian group) on ‘Rating Watch with Developing Implications’.
Crisil Ratings had placed the ratings on Watch with Developing Implications on September 09, 2025, following the announcement made by AESL regarding the proposed scheme of merger of Oilmax Energy Private Limited (OEPL, the parent of AESL) into AESL. While AESL has received board and stock exchange approval. National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered a meeting of shareholders and final order is pending. Crisil Ratings will continue to monitor the progress of the merger and will resolve the watch with appropriate rating action post-completion of the same and upon gaining clarity on OEPL's performance.
The ratings continue to reflect AESL’s long standing presence and technical capabilities, diversified revenue stream and comfortable financial risk profile. These strengths are partially offset by working capital intensive nature of operations and susceptibility of the AESL’s performance to change in government regulations |
Analytical Approach For arriving at the ratings, Crisil Ratings has combined the business and financial risk profiles of AESL along-with its subsidiaries (including step down subsidiary) viz. Asian Oilfield & Energy Services DMCC (Dubai), AOSL Petroleum Pte. Ltd., AOSL Energy Services Limited, Optimum Oil & Gas Private Limited, Cure Multitrade Private Limited and Ivorene Oil Services Nigeria Ltd (step down subsidiary) and step down subsidiaries viz Kuiper Group Limited (Cayman), OCB Oilfield Services DMCC (Dubai), Global Resources Management Employment Services LLC (UAE), Kuiper Triangle (Dubai), Nexus People Management (KSA), Maaber for Logistics Services (Quatar), Offshore International Management (India) Private Limited, Kuiper International Pte Ltd (Singapore),Kuiper Malaysia Sdn. Bhd (Malaysia), OCB Oilfield Services (B) Sdn Bhd (Brunei), PT Oilfeild Crew Management ltd (Indonesia), Nexus People Management Limited (Thailand), OCB Oilfield Services Limited (Thailand), Kuiper Triangle Egypt (Egypt), Kuiper Labour Supply Services Namibia (Pty) Ltd (Namibia), Kuiper HR Management and Consultancy WLL (Qatar), Kuiper Malaysia Manpower Services Sdn. Bhd (Malaysia), Kuiper Triangle Cyprus Limited (Cyrus), Kuiper Holdings Limited (Dubai) and Maaber Logistic Services Oman operations (Oman) and four joint ventures viz. Zuberi Asian Joint Venture, AESL FFIL Joint Venture and Asian Indwell Joint Venture and Asian Oilmax Joint Venture.
Please refer Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated, which captures the list of entities considered and their analytical treatment of consolidation. |
Key Rating Drivers - Strengths Longstanding presence, strong technical capabilities: Asian group being a subsidiary of OEPL benefits from the experience of promoter Mr. Kapil Garg who has an experience of over three decades in the industry. This industry experience has led to strong technical capabilities and established client base.
The group has been dealing with reputed players like Gail India ltd, ONGC Ltd, Oil India Ltd, Vedanta Ltd, Heavy Engineering Corporation, Singareni Coalfield ltd, Eastern Coalfield ltd. Strong technical capabilities has led to a compounded annual growth of nearly 62% for the past three fiscal years ending fiscal 2025. Group has already clocked in a revenue of Rs 453 Cr for the nine months ended December 31, 2025. Business risk profile of the group is estimated to remain comfortable over the medium term on account of healthy unexecuted order book of Rs 1874 Cr as on December 31, 2025.
Diversified revenue base: AESL was previously heavily dependent on seismic segment and had started its EPC operations fiscal 2021 onwards and later on added operations and maintenance segment. Group has also acquired Kuiper group in H1 of fiscal 2026 which is engaged in proving man-power services for the energy sector in Middle East.
This diversification in revenue insulates the group from downturn in anyone segment and helps to increase its scale on a steady basis as reflected in a year till date growth of 81% in topline for the nine months ended December 31, 2025, as against same time last year.
Comfortable capital structure: Capital structure of the group remains comfortable marked by a networth of Rs 443 Cr as on September 30, 2025. Moderate reliance on external debt has led to a comfortable capital structure marked by a gearing of 0.24 times as on September 30, 2025, despite debt funded capex and acquisition done by the group in H1 of fiscal 2026.
Debt protection metrics also remain comfortable with interest coverage ratio at 7.57 times for the H1 of fiscal year 2026. |
Key Rating Drivers - Weaknesses Working capital intensive nature of operations: AESL continues to have working capital intensive nature of operations as reflected in 293 Gross Current Asset (GCA) Days as on March 31, 2025. High GCA emanates from high debtor days which stood at 284 days as on September 30, 2025. Debtor days are estimated to reduce and remain in the range of 170-190 days by March 31, 2026. Inventory days have reduced from 79 days as on March 31, 2025, to 59 days as on September 30, 2025 and are estimated to reduce further by March 2026. Working capital requirements are met by creditors and bank lines.
Government Regulations-Policy: AESL generates majority of its revenue from the oil and gas segment and is susceptible to an changes in the industry. Changes in the geopolitical landscape and government policies particularly to the environment and safety issues can materially impact the business risk profile of the group. |
Liquidity Adequate Liquidity position of the company remains adequate and is marked by estimated net cash accruals over Rs 84 Cr as against repayment obligations of Rs 24-25 Cr fiscal 2027 onwards. Bank limit utilization is moderate and averaged at 56% for fund-based limits and 76.25% for non-fund-based limits for the past twelve months ended February 2026. Group also has cash and cash equivalents of Rs 157 Cr as on March 2026 of which Rs 92 Cr is free from any encumbrance. |
Rating sensitivity factors Upward factors:
Downward factors:
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About the Group AESL provides a range of geophysical onshore seismic and drilling services, including acquisition, imaging, field evaluation, 2D & 3D seismic data services. Further, ASEL along with its subsidiaries & joint ventures also provides EPC and O&M services to various oil and gas production units and mining & other energy sector.
Its listed in at BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited. Dr. Kapil Garg is the Managing Director. |
Key Financial Indicators (Consolidated Numbers)
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Any other information: Not applicable |
Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument: |
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
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Annexure – List of entities consolidated
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| Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Annexure - Details of Bank Lenders & Facilities | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Annexure: List of instruments and names of regulators of the instruments As required by SEBI CRA Circular dated Feb 10, 2026, a list of activities or instruments falling under the purview of various FSRs, along with the names of respective FSRs, is being disclosed below:
* Includes securitisation transactions involving assignee payout, acquirer's payout. ~ The rated instrument may involve issuance of different instruments such as debt securities (listed or otherwise), bank loans, commercial paper (listed or otherwise), etc. The regulator of the instrument may accordingly be SEBI, RBI or MCA and can only be determined upon issuance. In PRs subsequent to issuance(s), Crisil Ratings Limited shall separately capture the rated quantum details along with names of respective regulators. ^ Includes bank facilities such as liquidity facility, second loss facility that are part of securitisation transactions. # There is no instrument being rated and hence, Regulator of the Instrument is not applicable. The rating scale and definitions are being followed as stipulated in SEBI Master Circular for CRAs. @ These ratings were assigned during regulatory regime prior to introduction of SEBI CRA Circular dated Feb 10, 2026 and the investor side regulators have accordingly been included.
Note: Kindly note that for activities or instruments falling under the purview of FSRs other than SEBI, the grievance/dispute redressal mechanisms and investor protection mechanisms provided by SEBI shall not be available. |
Criteria Details
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