Rating Rationale
November 09, 2020 | Mumbai
Avenue Supermarts Limited
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities Rated Rs.585 Crore
Long Term Rating CRISIL AA+/Stable
 
Rs.200 Crore Commercial Paper CRISIL A1+
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL ratings on the bank facilities and commercial paper of Avenue Supermarts Limited (ASL) continue to reflect a strong market position in the domestic organised F&G retail market and a robust financial risk profile. These strengths are partially offset by a moderate though improving geographic spread, and susceptibility of operating performance to regulatory changes and to competition.

Operating performance of ASL is impacted during the current fiscal because of restriction during lockdown on store operations, sale of non-food products and lower footfalls. Revenue growth to recover in remainder of the year supported by relaxation of all constraints, new store additions.

Further, the healthy operating profitability of 8-9% should be maintained over the medium term, barring fiscal 2021 wherein the margin should moderate due to suboptimal fixed cost coverage in the first half. Overall profitability will be backed by faster breakeven of stores (6-12 months), superior per store revenue compared with peers, stable proportion of non-food and grocery (F&G) sales, high inventory turnover as well as maintenance of the gross margin at around 15% in spite of increasing competitive intensity.

The financial risk profile should remain robust, driven by strong cash accrual (estimated at over Rs 1,300 crore per fiscal) and healthy liquidity (around Rs 3,000 crore as on September 30, 2020).

Analytical Approach

For arriving at its rating, CRISIL has combined the business and financial risk profiles of ASL and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Align Retail Trade Pvt Ltd (ARTPL), Avenue Food Plaza Private Ltd (AFPL), Avenue E-commerce Limited (AEL), Nahar Seth and Jogani Developers Private Limited and Reflect Wholesale and Retail Private Limited. The subsidiaries are an integral part of ASL's operations. All the five companies are referred to as ASL.

Please refer Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated, which captures the list of entities considered and their analytical treatment of consolidation.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description
Strengths
* Strong market position in the organised retail market: ASL's market position is reinforced by steady same-store growth and retail productivity, and short gestation for new stores. ASL currently operates 220 stores (as on Sept 30, 2020) under the D-Mart brand, which reported healthy same-store sales growth (irrespective of their vintage) of about 10% in fiscal 2020.
 
Strong procurement abilities, lower priced products along with strong cost control have led to strong footfalls in past. This leads to high inventory turnover and revenue per sq ft and translates into industry leading retail store productivity. Aggregate revenue per square foot at about Rs. 32970 in fiscal 2020, is significantly higher than most retailers in the same segment. The operating profitability of the company had seen improvement over the years though fell to 7.6% in fiscal 2020 due to impact on operations in March 2020 due to COVID. Operating margin to moderate in current fiscal by upto 150 bps on account of sub-optimal fixed cost coverage and restriction on sale of high margin non-food products during Q1FY21.

Currently, ASL's operations are largely concentrated in West and South India. Expected large cluster focused store addition over next 3 years will benefit to diversify geographic reach of the company. CRISIL believes strong track record of outpacing its peers in growth, its strong merchandising and compelling value proposition, benefit of economies of scale will benefit to strengthen ASL' market share in organised food and grocery retail in India in the medium term.

Going forward, impact of consolidation in the industry and intensity of competition mainly from online retailers will remain key monitorable.

Solid financial risk profile and healthy liquidity: Financial risk profile is driven by a sizeable net worth (Rs 10973 crore as on March 31, 2020), and strong annual cash generation, despite continuing store addition. The company has been able to maintain healthy operating metrics, while adding stores, and also prepaid debt through proceeds of its QIP in fiscal 2020. This has translated into strong debt protection metrics. In fiscal 2020, the company incurred capex of over Rs 1895 crore and increased the retail space from 5.9 million square feet to 7.8 million square feet.

CRISIL expects ASL's prudent expansion plan will entail a sizeable increase of about 20% per annum in existing retail space of around 8 million square feet by fiscal 2021. Strong cash generation of around Rs 1300 crore per annum is expected to be sufficient for capital expenditure (capex), resulting in low dependence on external borrowings. Furthermore, liquidity is expected to remain healthy.

Weakness
Susceptibility of operating performance to increasing competition: Consolidation in the industry will increase bargaining power of ASL's competitors in the brick and mortar retail which may impact gross margins of the company in near to medium term.

The competitive intensity is also increasing due to increasing focus of e-retailers in the F&G space. While ASL is a small player at present in the online F&G space, other major players such as BigBasket and Grofers and new entrants such as Jio mart are registering aggressive growth. Though, currently e-retail is a small proportion of overall retail it will remain key monitorable over the medium term.
Liquidity Strong

Liquidity is marked with healthy accruals, minimal debt and cash and equivalents of over Rs 3000 crore as on fiscal 2020. Nil utilization of fund based working capital limits of Rs 585 crore over last six months ended September 2020. Liquidity was added by Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) funds of Rs 4098 crore. The company is expected to incur capital expenditure (capex) for nearly 100 new stores expected to commence over the next three fiscals, which is expected to be funded mainly from internal accruals.

Outlook: Stable

CRISIL believes that ASL's credit risk profile will continue to remain healthy on account of improving market position in the organised retail segment, strong annual cash generation, and healthy financial flexibility.

Rating Sensitivity Factors
Upward factors
* Substantial improvement geographical diversity and sales channel mix resulting in higher scale of operations with sustainable operating profitability of around 8.5-9.0% over the medium term
* Sustenance of strong capital structure ,for instance gearing remaining below 0.20 times with adequate liquidity.

Downward factors
* Significant weakening of operating margin due to large gestation losses from new stores, for instance, operating margin consistently remaining below 7%
* Larger-than-expected debt-funded capex weakening gearing to above 0.5 time.

About the Company

ASL is engaged in the organised retail business through its D-Mart chain of stores. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is promoted by Mr. Radhakishan Damani, a well-known equity market investor. Mr. Ignatius Navil Noronha is ASL's chief executive officer and managing director. As of Sept 2020, it had 220 hypermarket stores across 11 states and 2 UTs.

Align Retail Trades Pvt Ltd (ARTPL) procures grocery items, including pulses, rice, wheat, vegetables, and fruits from local agricultural produce market committees, package these, and supplies to ASL. AFPL runs fast-food counters outside the D-Mart stores. AEL is into e-retailing of F&G and operates currently in certain regions of Mumbai.  ASL acquired 50.79% in AEL in February 2018 for Rs 49.2 crore to make it wholly owned subsidiary.

ASL successfully completed a QIP of Rs 4098 crore in Q4 of fiscal 2020.

In the first half of fiscal 2021, revenue was Rs 9,189 crore (Rs 13,064 in the corresponding half of the previous fiscal) and profit after tax (PAT) of Ra 238 crore (Rs 655 crore).

Key Financial Indicators - (CRISIL Adjusted Numbers)
As on March 31 Unit 2020 2019
Revenue Rs.Cr 24918 20075
Profit After Tax (PAT) Rs.Cr 1171 806
PAT Margins % 4.7 5.3
Adjusted Debt/Adjusted Networth Times 0.00 0.10
Interest coverage Times 47.9 35.6

Any other information: Not applicable

Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument:
CRISIL complexity levels are assigned to various types of financial instruments and are included (where applicable) in the Annexure -- Details of Instrument in this Rating Rationale. For more details on the CRISIL complexity levels, please visit www.crisil.com/complexity-levels.
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
ISIN Name of instrument Date of allotment Coupon rate (%) Maturity date Issue size (Rs.Crore) Complexity level Rating assigned with outlook
NA Proposed Fund based bank limits NA NA NA 235 NA CRISIL AA+/Stable
NA Working Capital Facility NA NA NA 350 NA CRISIL AA+/Stable
NA Commercial Paper NA NA 7-365 Days 200 Simple CRISIL A1+
 
Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated
S No Name of Subsidiary Subsidiary Extent of consolidation Rationale for consolidation
Fully Consolidated Subsidiaries Subsidiary 100% Business linkages
1 Align Retail Trade Pvt Ltd (ARTPL), Subsidiary 100% Business linkages
2 Avenue Food Plaza Private Ltd (AFPL) Subsidiary 100% Business linkages
3 Avenue E-commerce Ltd (AEL), Subsidiary 100% Business linkages
4 Nahar Seth and Jogani Developers Pvt Ltd Subsidiary 100% Business linkages
5 Reflect Wholesale and Retail Pvt Ltd Subsidiary 100% Business linkages
Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years
  Current 2020 (History) 2019  2018  2017  Start of 2017
Instrument Type Outstanding Amount Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Rating
Commercial Paper  ST  200.00  CRISIL A1+  27-10-20  CRISIL A1+  10-10-19  CRISIL A1+  26-10-18  CRISIL A1+  03-04-17  CRISIL A1+  CRISIL A1+ 
            04-09-19  CRISIL A1+  24-09-18  CRISIL A1+       
            26-04-19  CRISIL A1+  05-03-18  CRISIL A1+       
Non Convertible Debentures  LT    --  27-10-20  Withdrawn  10-10-19  CRISIL AA+/Stable  26-10-18  CRISIL AA+/Stable  03-04-17  CRISIL AA/Stable  CRISIL AA-/Positive 
            04-09-19  CRISIL AA+/Stable  24-09-18  CRISIL AA+/Stable       
            26-04-19  CRISIL AA+/Stable  05-03-18  CRISIL AA/Positive       
Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  585.00  CRISIL AA+/Stable  27-10-20  CRISIL AA+/Stable  10-10-19  CRISIL AA+/Stable  26-10-18  CRISIL AA+/Stable  03-04-17  CRISIL AA/Stable  CRISIL AA-/Positive 
            04-09-19  CRISIL AA+/Stable  24-09-18  CRISIL AA+/Stable       
            26-04-19  CRISIL AA+/Stable/ CRISIL A1+  05-03-18  CRISIL AA/Positive       
All amounts are in Rs.Cr.
Annexure - Details of various bank facilities
Current facilities Previous facilities
Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating
Proposed Fund-Based Bank Limits 235 CRISIL AA+/Stable Proposed Fund-Based Bank Limits 135 CRISIL AA+/Stable
Working Capital Facility 350 CRISIL AA+/Stable Working Capital Facility 450 CRISIL AA+/Stable
-- 0 -- Working Capital Facility 165 Withdrawn
Total 585 -- Total 750 --
Links to related criteria
CRISILs Approach to Financial Ratios
CRISILs Bank Loan Ratings - process, scale and default recognition
Rating criteria for manufaturing and service sector companies
Rating Criteria for Retailing Industry
CRISILs Criteria for Consolidation
CRISILs Criteria for rating short term debt

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