Rating Rationale
July 13, 2020 | Mumbai
Prima Telecom Limited
Ratings Reaffirmed
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities Rated Rs.40 Crore (Reduced from Rs.60 Crore)
Long Term Rating CRISIL BBB/Negative (Reaffirmed)
Short Term Rating CRISIL A3+ (Reaffirmed)
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL ratings on the bank facilties of Prima Telecom Limited (PTL) continue to reflect the extensive experience of the promoters in the telecom equipment industry, and a healthy financial risk profile. These strengths are partially offset by a modest scale of operations, large working capital requirement, and exposure to volatility in foreign exchange (forex) rates.
 
CRISIL has withdrawn its rating on the proposed bank facilities of PTL of Rs 20 crore at company's request and latest sanction letter. This is in line with CRISIL's withdrawal policy.
 
CRISIL, on June 30, 2020, had revised outlook on long-term bank facilities of PTL to 'Negative' from 'Positive' while reaffirming the rating at 'CRISIL BBB'. The short-term rating had been reaffirmed at 'CRISIL A3+'.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description
Strengths
* Extensive experience of the promoters in the telecom equipment industry: The experience of two decades of the promoters, Mr Ramesh Suri and Ms Shradha Suri, a diversified product portfolio, and established relationships with customers and suppliers, should continue to benefit its business risk profile.
 
* Healthy financial risk profile: The networth is comfortable, estimated at Rs 35.8 crore as on March 31, 2020, (Rs 31 crore as on March 31, 2019), driven by continuous accretion to reserves. This, along with the absence of long-term debt led to improvement in the total outside liabilities to adjusted ntworth (TOLANW) ratio to an estimated 1.62 times as on March 31, 2020, from 1.96 times a year earlier. In the absence of any major debt-funded capital expenditure (capex), the TOLANW ratio is expected at around 1.5 time over the medium term.
 
The net cash accrual to adjusted debt and adjusted interest coverage ratios are estimated at 0.28 time and 4.4 times, respectively, for fiscal 2020 (0.32 time and 3.89 times, respectively, in the previous fiscal). With revenue and operating margin expected to improve from fiscal 2021, debt protection metrics should remain healthy over the medium term.
 
Weaknesses:
* Modest scale of operations: Operating income was modest, estimated at Rs 71.5 crore for fiscal 2020, a significant drop from Rs 154 crore in fiscal 2019. In fiscal 2020, the entire revenue from orders from private sector entities was received. In fiscal 2019, around Rs 87 crore was from orders from public sector entities and the remaining from private sector entities. In fiscal 2021, revenue is expected to remain around Rs 100 crore despite the Covid-19 pandemic. That's because telecom was listed as an essential service by the government. This enabled the company to partially begin operations from the first week of April. The increased consumption of data since the lockdown began from March 2020 has led to greater demand for the company's products across its customer base as reflected in increase in order value from existing customers. This and acquisition of a new customer should support increase in revenue in fiscal 2021. Any revenue from public sector entities will be over and above the Rs 100 crore expectation for fiscal 2021.
 
* Large working capital requirement: Working capital requirement varies across projects and orders, Hence, gross current assets (GCAs) have ranged between five months to a year in the five fiscals through 2020. GCAs are estimated at over 350 days as on March 31, 2020, compared with 167 days a year earlier largely because of increase in receivables to 294 days from 121 days. The increase in debtor days is sharper than that in value because of significant drop in sales in fiscal 2020. 
 
The receivables from ITI and RailTel projects are outstanding at around Rs 21 crore collectively and are expected to be realised in the next few months. However debtors are expected to remain high at over 100 days over the medium term. Substantial credit from suppliers eases pressure on working capital management. About 60% of the raw material is imported against letters of credit of 90-120 days, and the rest is procured from domestic suppliers on favourable terms of credit, backed by a healthy relationship.
 
* Exposure of profitability to fluctuation in forex rates: The company imported around 60% of its raw materials and derived 31% of sales from exports in fiscal 2020. It does not hedge the open exposure and hence any major fluctuations in forex rates can impact operating profitability.
Liquidity Adequate

Liquidity should remain adequate on account of expected sanctioning of a fund-based limit of around Rs 4 crore under a scheme announced by the Government of India as a part of the economic package to fight the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector. The entire limit is expected to be guaranteed by a government-backed trust. Because of the stretched working capital cycle throughout fiscal 2020, the fund-based bank limit was utilized at an average of 95% during the 12 months through March 2020.
 
The company had also availed moratorium from its banker for the interest on its fund-based bank limit for March to May 2020, although it had to continue to meet the obligation. It has further requested its banker to extend the moratorium from June to August 2020. However, with business expected to return to normal from July (in terms of revenue booked per month), it should be able to service its debt obligation in time.
 
Further, to support liquidity during the lockdown, the management has undertaken various cost rationalization measures. This will help in improving cash generation on an annualized basis, which would have otherwise remained subdued. CRISIL expects net cash accrual of Rs 3-4 crore per fiscal over the medium term which would entirely cater to working capital requirement in the absence of any long-term debt obligation.

Outlook: Negative

CRISIL believes the working capital cycle may remain stretched thus impacting liquidity and the ability to scale-up the business further, over the medium tern.
 
Rating sensitivity factors 
Upward factors
* Significant improvement in the working capital cycle with debtors reducing to less than 200 days
* Considerable and sustainable increase in revenue and the operating margin
 
Downward factors
* Continuous stretch in the working capital cycle with debtors remaining above 225 days
* Lower-than-anticipated net cash accrual on account of decline in revenue or operating profit
* Large, debt-funded capital expenditure, weakening fhe capital structure

About the Company

PTL, incorporated in 1995, is a Lalit Suri group company (promoters of Subros Ltd and the Lalit group of hotels). The company assembles and markets telecom access products such as routers, radios, modems, multiplexers, GPON and UBRs, especially in the last-mile access network (defined as the network required to reach connectivity to user homes or cell phones).

Key Financial Indicators
on / for the period ended March 31 2019 2018
Operating income Rs crore 153.69 92.78
Reported profit after tax  (PAT) Rs crore 5.43 3.40
PAT margin % 2.57 3.67
Adjusted debt/adjusted networth Times 0.55 0.11
Interest coverage Times 3.56 5.59

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 Cr) Complexity Level Rating Assigned with Outlook
NA Bank Guarantee NA NA NA 5.4 NA CRISIL A3+
NA Cash Credit NA NA NA 10 NA CRISIL BBB/Negative
NA Cheque Discounting NA NA NA 10 NA CRISIL A3+
NA Letter of Credit NA NA NA 14.6 NA CRISIL A3+
NA Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility NA NA NA 20 NA Withdrawn
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
Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  20.00  CRISIL BBB/Negative/ CRISIL A3+  30-06-20  CRISIL BBB/Negative/ CRISIL A3+  30-04-19  CRISIL BBB/Positive/ CRISIL A3+  23-02-18  CRISIL BB+/Stable/ CRISIL A4+ (Issuer Not Co-operating)*      CRISIL BBB/Stable/ CRISIL A3+ 
Non Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  20.00  CRISIL A3+  30-06-20  CRISIL A3+  30-04-19  CRISIL A3+  23-02-18  CRISIL A4+ (Issuer Not Co-operating)*      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 5.4 CRISIL A3+ Bank Guarantee 5.4 CRISIL A3+
Cash Credit 10 CRISIL BBB/Negative Cash Credit 10 CRISIL BBB/Negative
Cheque Discounting 10 CRISIL A3+ Cheque Discounting 10 CRISIL A3+
Letter of Credit 14.6 CRISIL A3+ Letter of Credit 14.6 CRISIL A3+
Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility 20 Withdrawn Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility 20 CRISIL BBB/Negative
Total 60 -- Total 60 --
Links to related criteria
Assessing Information Adequacy Risk
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 Mobile Telephony Services
CRISILs Criteria for rating short term debt

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