Rating Rationale
October 08, 2020 | Mumbai
NRB Bearings Limited
Rated amount enhanced
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities Rated Rs.382 Crore (Enhanced from Rs.362 Crore)
Long Term Rating CRISIL AA-/Negative (Reaffirmed)
 
Rs.30 Crore Non Convertible Debentures CRISIL AA-/Negative (Reaffirmed)
Rs.20 Crore Non Convertible Debentures CRISIL AA-/Negative (Withdrawn)
Rs.85 Crore Commercial Paper CRISIL A1+ (Reaffirmed)
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
 
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL has reaffirmed its ratings on the bank facilities and debt instruments of NRB Bearings Limited (NRB) at 'CRISIL AA-/Negative/CRISIL A1+ '. CRISIL has also withdrawn its rating on the Non-convertible debentures of Rs 20 crore since these are completely redeemed. This is in line with CRISIL's policy on withdrawal of ratings.
 
The rating reflects CRISIL's belief that NRB's revenue growth and operating profitability over the near term will remain under pressure given the continued slow-down in demand in the automotive sector.
 
NRB derives nearly 65-67% of its revenues from domestic automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), while about 10-12% and 20-22% are derived from domestic aftermarket and exports. Fiscal 2020 was a challenging year for the automobile sector due to a wider consumption slowdown, liquidity crunch and transition to stringent BS-VI emission norms. As a result, revenues declined by 20% compared to fiscal 2019, while profitability was also lower at 12.9% (compared to 19.4% in fiscal 2019) due to lower fixed absorption following decline in volumes.
 
The situation has further aggravated in fiscal 2021 due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown across both domestic and overseas markets, leading to sharp decline of 70% in revenues and operating loss of Rs 16.4 crore during the first quarter of fiscal 2021. A strong and sustainable recovery in performance during the ensuing quarters will be critical to limit the de-growth in revenues to under 18% and sustain operating margins at 12-13% for fiscal 2021.

That said, NRB is well placed to capitalise on recovery in automobile demand due to its high share of demand from OEMs. Diverse customer profile and geographical base along with technological expertise will support the overall business profile of the company.

NRB's financial risk profile, continues to be supported by management's efforts to keep debt levels under check, given the volatile nature of the automotive business.

The ratings continue to reflect NRB's market leadership in the needle and cylindrical roller bearing segments and diverse customer profile and strong technical expertise. These strengths are partly offset by intrinsic working capital-intensive operations, vulnerability to cyclicality in the end-user industry, and pricing pressure from OEMs.

Analytical Approach

For arriving at its ratings, CRISIL has combined the business and financial risk profiles of NRB and its subsidiaries, together referred to as NRB, as all the companies are in the same business. 

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:
* Market leadership in the needle and cylindrical roller bearing segments in India: The Company has an estimated market share of 70% in the needle bearing industry in India, with a strong presence in the cylindrical roller, special tapered roller, and special ball bearings segments. This is aided by the promoters' extensive industry experience, robust in-house research and development facilities, and strong client relationships.
 
* Diverse customer profile: NRB has longstanding relationships with Indian and global automobile OEMs and Tier-I vendors. It has customers across multiple segments, including two-wheelers, commercial vehicles (CVs), passenger cars, utility vehicles (UVs), farm equipment & tractors, off-highway vehicles, railways and defence. OEMs contributed the most to its revenue (about 65%) in fiscal 2020, while aftermarket and export sales contributed the rest. Despite the large proportion of revenue from OEMs, no single customer with its tier-1 supplier accounts for more than 12% of the total revenue, thereby limiting customer concentration risk.
 
* Strong technical expertise: NRB has been operating in India for over 6 decades, and has over time built strong technical expertise and knowhow covering the full range of bearing design, from conception to software aided simulation, testing, validation, benchmarking  and production. The company's product range spans over 3000 designs, which are also made to suit its customer's requirements. In fiscal 2000, NRB established a dedicated engineering & design (E&D) centre, which is recognized by the Indian Department of Science & Technology as a world-class research and development facility. Today this is a standalone facility in a twenty thousand square feet area in Rabale. In addition, there is another centre that focusses on process engineering at the plant site in Waluj MIDC. Besides, its plants use automated production and assembly machinery designed in-house, reflecting the strong technical capabilities of its team. This has also enabled NRB keep abreast of technological changes and in the bearings market.
 
* Healthy financial risk profile: Financial risk profile is healthy. While the expected decline in cash accruals will impact credit metrics in fiscal 2021, the same is expected to improve from fiscal 2022 on the back of restoration of end market demand.  The financial risk profile is supported by healthy networth of Rs 465 crore and moderate gearing of 0.77 times as on March 31, 2020.  Other key credit metrics i.e. interest coverage ratio and net cash accruals to debt ratio remains healthy at 4.4 times and 0.22 times respectively as on March 31, 2020. These metrics will decline in fiscal 2021 and improve in fiscal 2022.
 
Weaknesses:
* Working capital-intensive operations: Due to the just-in-time delivery to OEMs and large number of product stock keeping units (SKUs) across more than 500 products inventory days are high at 130-140 days. Furthermore, payment terms from the automotive component manufacturers vary from two to three months, resulting in receivable levels of ~100-110 days. While the incremental working capital requirement in fiscal 2021 will be limited in line with revenue decline, end of the year working capital requirements could be high given the expected recovery from the start of fiscal 2022.
 
* Vulnerability to cyclical demand in the automotive bearings segment and to pricing pressure from OEMs:
High dependence of bearing manufacturers on the automobile sector exposes them to cyclicality in demand. While bearing manufacturers enjoy reasonable pricing flexibility with OEMs, backed by mutual interdependence, and capital and technology intensity of operations, price negotiations happen with a lag, leading to price adjustment delays and impact on profitability in the interim. Furthermore, if there is a prolonged slowdown and decreasing demand for automobiles, it is not always possible for OEMs to completely pass on input price increase to end users. Hence, any significant increase in prices is absorbed jointly by suppliers and OEMs. Additionally, any significant decline in demand will increase overheads, and hence, impact profitability of component suppliers.
Liquidity Strong

NRB is expected to generate cash accruals of about Rs 50 crore in fiscals 2021 which should take care of modest capex needs, and debt repayments totalling Rs.45 crore. Liquidity is also supported by cash surplus of Rs 40 crore and unused bank lines of Rs. 140-150 crore.

Outlook: Negative

CRISIL believes that NRB's business performance will be impacted by the Covid induced lockdown and continued slowdown in automobile demand in fiscal 2021. Its financial risk profile though is expected to remain at healthy levels.

Rating Sensitivity factors
Upward factors
* Sustained annual revenue growth of 10-12%, while maintaining healthy operating profitability at 18-20%
* Significant improvement in capital structure resulting in negligible gearing
 
Downward factors
* Sharper decline in revenue by  greater than 15% and deterioration of operating margin to below 12%, most likely due to further deterioration in business conditions following prolonged demand slowdown.
* Deterioration in credit metrics; eg. gearing levels of above 1.0 time, due to stretch in working capital or debt funded capex or acquisitions
About the Company

Founded by late Mr Trilochan Singh Sahney in 1965, NRB manufactures needle, cylindrical, special ball, and taper-roller bearings. It also makes other friction solution components such as planetary shafts, crank pins, and kingpins. The company has four subsidiaries: SNL Bearings Ltd (SNL), NRB Bearings (Thailand) Ltd, NRB Bearings Europe GmbH, and NRB Bearings USA Inc. NRB's manufacturing facilities are at Thane, Aurangabad, Jalna, and Waluj in Maharashtra; Hyderabad; and Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. SNL's facility is at Ranchi in Jharkhand, while NRB Thailand's plant is at Rayong in Thailand. The product engineering centre at Rabale and process and advanced materials-based engineering centre at Waluj are government accredited.

Ms Harshbeena S Zaveri, daughter of Mr Trilochan Singh Sahney, was appointed the company's President in January 2001. Currently, she is the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of NRB and the Chairman of the Board of SNL.

For the three month period ended June 30, 2020, the company reported a PAT loss of Rs. 14.3 crores (Rs. 11.8 crores in the corresponding period of fiscal 2019), on net revenues of Rs 62.8 crores (Rs. 212.4 crores in the corresponding period of fiscal 2019).

Key Financial Indicators - (NRB Bearings Consolidated)
Particulars Unit 2020 2019
Revenue Rs crore 776 965
PAT Rs crore 33 110
PAT margin % 4.28 9.9
Adjusted debt/Adjusted networth Times 0.77 0.58
Interest coverage Times 4.41 13.35

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 Coupon Rate (%) Date of Allotment Date of Maturity Issue Size
(Rs Cr)
Complexity Level Rating Assigned
with Outlook
NA Cash Credit@ NA NA NA 80 NA CRISIL AA-/Negative
NA Cash Credit# NA NA NA 67 NA CRISIL AA-/Negative
NA Cash Credit& NA NA NA 40 NA CRISIL AA-/Negative
NA Cash Credit^ NA NA NA 80 NA CRISIL AA-/Negative
NA Cash Credit@@ NA NA NA 75 NA CRISIL AA-/Negative
NA Cash Credit NA NA NA 25 NA CRISIL AA-/Negative
NA Proposed Long Term Bank Facility Loan NA NA NA 15 NA CRISIL AA-/Negative
NA Commercial paper NA NA 7-365 days 85 Simple CRISIL A1+
INE349A08026 Non-convertible debentures 9.49 14-Jun-16 12-Jun-20 20 Simple Withdrawn
INE349A08034 Non-convertible debentures 9.60 12-Sep-18 12-Sep-23 30 Simple CRISIL AA-/Negative
@Interchangeable with buyer's credit (BC), export packing credit (EPC), bill discounting (BD), letter of credit (LC), and bank guarantee (BG)
#Interchangeable with working capital demand loan (WCDL) /LC/standby letter of credit/guarantee/EPC
& Interchangeable with WCDL, EPC, LC/BC, and capex BC
^ Interchangeable with cash credit, WCDL/foreign currency non-repatriable (FCNR)/EPC/BC
@@ Interchangeable with STL/CP, BC/EPC/FCNR, CC/WCDL.
 
Annexure - List of entities consolidated
  Subsidiary Extent of consolidation Rationale for consolidation
1 SNL Bearings 73.45% Subsidairy
2 NRB Bearings (Thailand) Limited Full Wholly owned subsidiary
3 NRB Bearings GmbH Full Wholly owned subsidiary
4 NRB Bearings USA Full Wholly owned subsidiary
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  85.00  CRISIL A1+  22-05-20  CRISIL A1+  04-12-19  CRISIL A1+  22-10-18  CRISIL A1+  15-06-17  CRISIL A1+  CRISIL A1+ 
            30-09-19  CRISIL A1+  24-09-18  CRISIL A1+       
                28-08-18  CRISIL A1+       
                29-06-18  CRISIL A1+       
Non Convertible Debentures  LT  30.00
08-10-20 
CRISIL AA-/Negative  22-05-20  CRISIL AA-/Negative  04-12-19  CRISIL AA-/Stable  22-10-18  CRISIL AA-/Positive  15-06-17  CRISIL AA-/Stable  CRISIL AA-/Stable 
            30-09-19  CRISIL AA-/Stable  24-09-18  CRISIL AA-/Positive       
                28-08-18  CRISIL AA-/Positive       
                29-06-18  CRISIL AA-/Positive       
Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  382.00  CRISIL AA-/Negative  22-05-20  CRISIL AA-/Negative  04-12-19  CRISIL AA-/Stable  22-10-18  CRISIL AA-/Positive  15-06-17  CRISIL AA-/Stable  CRISIL AA-/Stable 
            30-09-19  CRISIL AA-/Stable  24-09-18  CRISIL AA-/Positive       
                28-08-18  CRISIL AA-/Positive       
                29-06-18  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
Cash Credit@ 80 CRISIL AA-/Negative Cash Credit@ 80 CRISIL AA-/Negative
Cash Credit# 67 CRISIL AA-/Negative Cash Credit# 67 CRISIL AA-/Negative
Cash Credit& 40 CRISIL AA-/Negative Cash Credit& 40 CRISIL AA-/Negative
Cash Credit^ 80 CRISIL AA-/Negative Cash Credit^ 80 CRISIL AA-/Negative
Cash Credit@@ 75 CRISIL AA-/Negative Cash Credit@@ 70 CRISIL AA-/Negative
Cash Credit 25 CRISIL AA-/Negative Cash Credit 25 CRISIL AA-/Negative
Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility 15 CRISIL AA-/Negative -- 0 --
Total 382 -- Total 362 --
@Interchangeable with buyer's credit (BC), export packing credit (EPC), bill discounting (BD), letter of credit (LC), and bank guarantee (BG)
#Interchangeable with working capital demand loan (WCDL) /LC/standby letter of credit/guarantee/EPC
& Interchangeable with WCDL, EPC, LC/BC, and capex BC
^ Interchangeable with cash credit, WCDL/foreign currency non-repatriable (FCNR)/EPC/BC
@@ Interchangeable with STL/CP, BC/EPC/FCNR, CC/WCDL.
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 Consolidation
CRISILs Criteria for rating short term debt

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