| Hilltop Hirise Private Limited | ||||||
| Ratings reaffirmed at 'Crisil BBB- / Stable / Crisil A3 '; 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 reaffirmed its ‘Crisil BBB-/Stable/Crisil A3’ ratings on the bank facilities of Hilltop Hirise Pvt Ltd (HHPL).
The ratings continue to reflect the established market position of HHPL in the mining services industry and its moderate debt protection metrics. These strengths are partially offset by the company’s leveraged capital structure and susceptibility of operating margin to fluctuations in input costs. |
Analytical Approach Crisil Ratings has evaluated the standalone business and financial risk profiles of HHPL. |
Key Rating Drivers - Strengths Established market position with a healthy order book providing revenue visibility: Longstanding presence of the promoters in the mining services industry, their strong understanding of market dynamics and healthy relationships with customers and suppliers will continue to support the business. Strong relationships with reputable principals, such as Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, Western Coalfield Ltd and Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, also aid the market position of the company. Revenue is expected to remain stable at around more than Rs 500 crore, backed by moderately healthy order book of around Rs 1,415 crore as of October 2025 (about 3 times of the estimated topline), to be executed over the next 2–3 years.
Moderate debt protection metrics: The company’s debt protection metrics have been healthy driven by moderately healthy profitability despite moderate leverage. The adjusted interest coverage and net cash accrual to total debt (NCATD) ratios were 4.00 times and 0.25 time, respectively, for fiscal 2025, and are expected to remain in similar levels over the medium term as well. |
Key Rating Drivers - Weaknesses Leveraged capital structure: The capital expenditure (capex)-intensive business model of HHPL has resulted in high dependance on external borrowing over the last few years, leading to a leveraged capital structure. Gearing was high at 1.69 times as on March 31, 2025, while the total outside liabilities to tangible networth (TOLTNW) ratio was 2.11 times. This was on account of term debt contracted to finance the purchase of new equipment for execution of bigger mining contracts over the past couple of years, coupled with large rent payable on leased assets. Though the regular accretion to reserve and repayment of such term debts should result in improvement in the capital structure over the medium term, short repayment tenures of these equipment finance loans might result in large obligations for the company, impacting the liquidity.
Susceptibility of operating margin to fluctuations in input costs: Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) margin has witnessed sharp decline over the years, coming down to around 11.8% in fiscal 2025, from 19–20% three years back. Fluctuation in input costs and steady increase in lease expenses towards hired assets have significantly impacted profitability. Though the Ebitda margin is expected to increase by 200–300 basis points (bps) over the medium term with better project pricing and efficiently managed input costs, sustainability of the same will remain monitorable. Also, the company bids for tenders floated by public sector entities, while contracts from private sector entities are mostly by invitation. Delay in awarding contracts, insufficient number of bidders, or lack of private sector contracts can adversely affect order inflow and revenue growth. |
Liquidity Adequate Bank limit utilisation was moderate at 57% on average for the 12 months through October 2025. Annual cash accrual remains tightly matched at Rs 65–70 crore over the medium term against yearly debt obligations of Rs 55–60 crore and the same is to be supported by expected cash flow from the sale of used machinery or equipment. The company has been generating significant cash flow and profit from the sale of used machinery equipment in the past and the same should continue to aid the cash flow over the medium term and will remain monitorable. |
Outlook Stable Crisil Ratings believes the financial risk profile of HHPL will improve over the medium term, backed by steady profit and reducing debt. |
Rating sensitivity factors Upward factors
Downward factors
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About the Company HHPL was set up in 2010, by the promoters, Mr Aloke Agarwalla and Mr Navin Kumar Tulsyan. The Jharkhand-based company provides coal mining services such as removal of overburden, extraction of coal, drilling, site levelling and grading and transportation. |
Key Financial Indicators
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Status of non cooperation with previous CRA: HHPL has not cooperated with ICRA Ltd, which has classified it as issuer not cooperative through its release dated August 27, 2019. The reason provided by ICRA Ltd is the non-furnishing of information for monitoring of ratings. |
Any other information: Not applicable |
Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument: |
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
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| Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| All amounts are in Rs.Cr. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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* - Issuer did not cooperate; based on best-available information
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| Annexure - Details of Bank Lenders & Facilities | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Criteria Details
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