Rating Rationale
March 11, 2019 | Mumbai
Craftsman Automation Limited
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities Rated Rs.1433.41 Crore
Long Term Rating CRISIL BBB+/Stable
Short Term Rating CRISIL A2
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL ratings on the bank facilities of Craftsman Automation Limited (CAL) reflect CRISIL's belief that CAL will sustain improvement in operating performance over the medium term, supported by increasing demand from its existing customers and addition of new customers, including in the international markets. The ratings also factor in CRISIL's belief that despite high capital expenditure (capex) CAL's financial risk profile will remain adequate over the medium term, driven by steady growth in cash accrual.
 
Healthy order flow from the domestic market and improved export performance led to a 35% growth in operating income to Rs 887 crore in the first half of fiscal 2019. Operating margin benefitted from favourable product mix with higher proportion of revenue from the high margin machining business, stabilization of Bengaluru unit which commenced production in fiscal 2018 and improving contribution from exports.
 
While the Company has obtained SEBI's permission for an Initial Public Offering (IPO), the exit for private equity investors'Marina III Singapore Pte Ltd. (part of Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited; holds 15.50%) and International Finance Corporation (14.06%) - remains a key rating sensitivity factor.
 
The ratings continue to reflect CAL's established position in the engineering contract-manufacturing segment, strong customer relationship, and healthy operating efficiencies. These strengths are partially offset by sizeable capex and working capital requirement, and exposure to cyclical demand from end-user industries.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description
Strengths:
* Established market position backed by strong customer relationship: CAL is a leading player in the engineering contract manufacturing segment with a diversified customer base across industries. The Company has three segments viz. Automotive - Power Train, Automotive - Aluminium Products and Industrial & Engineering business. The Automotive - Power Train segment caters to commercial vehicles, farm equipment, construction and mining equipment and passenger car sub-segments of the automotive industry. The Automotive - Aluminium Products supplies aluminium components to two wheeler and four wheeler manufacturers. The Industrial & Engineering segment consists of eight sub-segments  locomotives, industrial gears, aluminium castings for power switchgear,  high end sub-assemblies for packaging and printing machinery; material handling equipment, storage solutions and special purpose machines. The addition of capacity, products and customers and strong customer relationship has led to revenue growth of 27% over the five fiscals through 2018. Steady offtake by key customers is expected to help CAL maintain a healthy market position.

* Healthy operating efficiencies: Operating efficiencies continue to be healthy, driven by niche product profile and technical capabilities. The setting up of a non-ferrous foundry and aluminium dies-casting facilities has helped to broaden its product range. Furthermore, the general purpose machines that CAL uses has the operational flexibility to be deployed across various products and locations depending on the customer and operational requirements. The higher margin from its machining operations has helped CAL to maintain a better-than-industry operating margin of over 25% till fiscal 2015. In fiscals 2016 to 2018, the more profitable machining business was stagnant and export volume declined, resulting in moderation in operating margin. Operating margin has however improved in fiscal 2019 to 24% mainly due to a 40% growth in revenue from the high margin machining business.

Weaknesses:
* Sizeable capex and working capital requirements: The company has sizeable funding requirement for its annual capex and large working capital requirement, which are predominantly funded through debt. As a leading player in the contract manufacturing segment, it has to incur substantial upfront investment in setting up machining infrastructure and aluminium pressure die-casting facilities. However, this investment may have a significant gestation period because of the vagaries of the market the original equipment customer is exposed to. CAL also has to maintain considerable inventory to meet customers' requirements. While CAL has a diversified customer base, receivables also could get stretched during a slowdown, leading to pressure on working capital. Furthermore, high fixed cost and capital requirement render profitability and cash accrual highly sensitive to orders from key customers.

* Exposure to cyclical demand in end-user industries: CAL caters to the automotive, farm equipment, construction and earth moving equipment, locomotives, demand from which is typically linked to economic activity. While CAL is taking steps in scaling its own products and reducing its exposure to the contract manufacturing business, its business risk profile is expected to remain susceptible to cyclicality in end-user segments over the medium term.
Liquidity

CAL has average liquidity. Cash accrual of Rs 240-300 crore  expected over the medium term will be adequate to service annual term loan obligation of Rs 150-160 crore per annum. Bank lines of Rs 335 crore were utilised on an average of about 79% over the 12 months through November 2018 owing to large working capital requirement. Furthermore, company's sizeable annual capex in fiscal 2019 is expected to be funded using a combination of debt and internal accrual; therefore, the free operating cash flows are expected to be modest and can provide only limited cushion against any off-take shocks.

Outlook: Stable

CRISIL believes CAL will continue to benefit over the medium term from its established market position and strong customer relationship. The outlook may be revised to 'Positive' if better-than-expected revenue and cash accrual, most likely on account of healthy offtake from its new customers improves key credit metrics and liquidity. Any significant reduction in debt levels following the proposed equity infusion through initial public offering could also render a positive bias to the ratings. The outlook may be revised to 'Negative' in case of material decline in revenue and profitability, or if capital structure weakens considerably because of larger-than-expected debt-funded capex or stretch in working capital cycle.

About the Company

Established in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, in 1986 by Mr S Ravi, CAL manufactures several components and sub-assemblies on a supply and job work basis, according to client specifications in the automotive industrial and engineering segments. Key products in the automotive segment include power train products, cylinder blocks, cylinder heads, cam shaft, crank case  for commercial vehicle, sports utility vehicle, two wheeler, farm equipment and earthmoving and construction equipment. The company also has a non-ferrous sand foundry catering to the requirement of power transmission equipment manufacturers  and its industrial and engineering segments has wide range of products - industrial gears , storage solutions, material handling, locomotive engine components. It has a tool room which supplies dies for injection moulding and mould base. CAL also manufactures special purpose machines both metal and non-metal cutting.  Majority stake is held by promoters while Standard Chartered Private Equity Group holds 15.5% and International Finance Corporation holds 14.06%.

Profit after tax (PAT) was Rs 53 crore on sales of Rs 887 crore in six month ended September 30, 2018, against Rs 10 crore and Rs 653 crore, respectively, in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Key Financial Indicators
As on/for the period ended March 31 Unit 2018 2017
Revenue Rs crore 1471 1093
Profit After Tax (PAT) Rs crore 32 75
PAT Margin % 2.2 6.9
Adjusted debt/adjusted networth Times 1.64 1.48
Interest coverage Times 2.74 2.68

Any other information: Not applicable

Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument:
CRISIL complexity levels are assigned to various types of financial instruments. The CRISIL complexity levels are available on www.crisil.com/complexity-levels. Users are advised to refer to the CRISIL complexity levels for instruments that they consider for investment. Users may also call the Customer Service Helpdesk with queries on specific instruments.
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
ISIN Name of Instrument Date of Allotment Coupon Rate (%) Maturity Date Issue Size (Rs. Cr) Rating Assigned with Outlook
NA Cash Credit NA NA NA 200.00 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Packing Credit NA NA NA 60.0 CRISIL A2
NA Working Capital Demand Loan NA NA NA 75.00 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Bank Guarantee NA NA NA 20.00 CRISIL A2
NA Letter of Credit NA NA NA 100.00 CRISIL A2
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Sep-2024 55.37 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Dec-2023 80.93 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Oct-2023 64.26 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Nov-2023 104.56 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Mar-2025 72.35 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Jun-2022 25.56 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Aug-2022 23.77 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA May-2025 80.20 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Mar-2023 41.70 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Jun-2023 38.65 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Apr-2024 50.00 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Dec-2026 110.07 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Long Term Loan NA NA Sep-2023 50.00 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
NA Proposed Non-Fund based limits NA NA NA 49.52 CRISIL A2
NA Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility NA NA NA 131.47 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years
  Current 2019 (History) 2018  2017  2016  Start of 2016
Instrument Type Outstanding Amount Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Rating
Vendor Financing  ST              05-04-17  CRISIL A3+  21-07-16  CRISIL A3+  CRISIL A3+ 
Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  1263.89  CRISIL BBB+/Stable/ CRISIL A2  08-01-19  CRISIL BBB+/Stable/ CRISIL A2  23-03-18  CRISIL BBB+/Stable/ CRISIL A2  05-04-17  CRISIL BBB/Stable/ CRISIL A3+  21-07-16  CRISIL BBB/Stable/ CRISIL A3+  CRISIL BBB/Positive/ CRISIL A3+ 
Non Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  169.52  CRISIL A2  08-01-19  CRISIL A2  23-03-18  CRISIL A2  05-04-17  CRISIL A3+  21-07-16  CRISIL A3+  CRISIL A3+ 
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
Bank Guarantee 20 CRISIL A2 Bank Guarantee 20 CRISIL A2
Cash Credit 200 CRISIL BBB+/Stable Cash Credit 200 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
Letter of Credit 100 CRISIL A2 Letter of Credit 100 CRISIL A2
Long Term Loan 797.42 CRISIL BBB+/Stable Long Term Loan 796.96 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
Packing Credit 60 CRISIL A2 Packing Credit 60 CRISIL A2
Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility 131.47 CRISIL BBB+/Stable Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility 131.47 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
Proposed Non Fund based limits 49.52 CRISIL A2 Proposed Non Fund based limits 49.98 CRISIL A2
Working Capital Demand Loan 75 CRISIL BBB+/Stable Working Capital Demand Loan 75 CRISIL BBB+/Stable
Total 1433.41 -- Total 1433.41 --
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 Auto Component Suppliers
CRISILs Criteria for rating short term debt

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