Rating Rationale
February 25, 2021 | Mumbai
Sumitomo Chemical India Limited
Rating reaffirmed at 'CRISIL AA/Stable'
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities RatedRs.200 Crore
Long Term RatingCRISIL AA/Stable (Reaffirmed)
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to Annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities

Detailed Rationale

CRISIL Ratings has reaffirmed its ‘CRISIL AA/Stable’ rating on the bank loan facilities of Sumitomo Chemical India Limited (SCIL).

 

The rating reflects SCIL’s established market position in the domestic crop protection business supported by its diversified product portfolio including insecticides, weedicides, fungicides, fumigants and rodenticides as well as plant growth nutrition products, bio-rationals and plant growth regulators, and access to the proprietary products of its Japanese parent, Sumitomo Chemical Company Limited (SCCL). Business risk profile should steadily improve over the medium term, supported by the healthy demand for crop-protection products, and as the company leverages its balanced presence across key sub segments of crop protection and the strong brand and chemistry skills of its parent, strengthening its agrochemicals business in India and abroad.

 

Supported by an above normal and well spread monsoon leading to higher Kharif acreages and a record increase in the sowing activities, revenue in the first 9 months of fiscal 2021 grew at a healthy 7% y/y. Profitability benefitted from improved operating leverage, better product mix and prices, improved operational efficiencies, cost optimization and merger synergies. Operating margin in the first 9 months of fiscal 2021 remained healthy at 19.7% as against 14.7% in the corresponding period of previous fiscal. Over the medium term revenue growth and operating profitability should remain healthy at 6-7% and 15-16%. The company is likely to maintain healthy return on capital employed of over 20%.

 

SCIL’s healthy business risk profile is complemented by its strong financial risk profile and liquidity. Reliance on external debt is expected to remain negligible as company’s annual cash accrual should be sufficient to meet modest capex and incremental working capital requirements.

 

These rating strengths are partially offset by company’s large working capital requirement and risks associated with the crop protection industry.

Analytical Approach

For arriving at the ratings, CRISIL Ratings has combined the business and financial risk profiles of SCIL and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. That’s because all these companies are in similar line of business, have the common management, and business and financial linkages.

 

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

  • Established presence in the crop protection segment:

A diversified product portfolio including insecticides, weedicides, fungicides, fumigants and rodenticides as well as plant growth nutrition products, bio-rationals and plant growth regulators, well-balanced technical and formulations manufacturing capabilities and access to SCCL’s proprietary products has helped SCIL establish itself as one of major players in this space.

 

  • Product portfolio is well diversified with company’s agro chemical products covering multiple crop segments in both Kharif and Rabi season and non-agrochemical including animal nutrition and environment health products. With over 13,000 distributors, SCIL’s distribution network covers close to 85% of mainland India, providing geographic diversity. Further, close to 15% of the revenue (in the first 9 months of fiscal 2021) is generated from export markets, partially offsetting the risk related to demand cyclicality in the domestic market.

 

  • Healthy financial risk profile: Financial risk profile is healthy, marked by comfortable gearing and debt protection metrics. Tangible networth was healthy at Rs 1,217 crore as on March 31, 2020, and debt has been negligible. Healthy annual cash accrual has enabled robust debt protection metrics: interest coverage ratio was over 100 times in fiscal 2020. Continued healthy cash generation, and prudent capital spending should lead to further improvement in financial risk profile over the medium term.

 

Weaknesses

  • Large working capital requirement: The agrochemical industry is characterised by working capital-intensive operations, due to large inventory requirement, seasonality in demand, and extended credit to dealers and distributors. While sales occur at the start of the season, payment is realised post-harvest, thus resulting in large receivables. Further, company has to maintain sizeable inventory given the large number of products at various price points, to ensure that dealers' requirements are met on time. Additionally, distributors require large credit period leading to high working capital requirement.

 

  • Susceptibility to risks inherent in the agrochemicals sector: The crop-protection sector remains susceptible to specific and separate registration processes in different countries, and various environmental rules and regulations. Change in regulatory requirements, such as export and import policies, and environmental and safety requirements in countries where the company has significant exposure, could weaken growth prospects. Further with about 80% of revenue coming from the domestic agricultural inputs business, SCIL remains exposed to cyclicality in the agrochemicals industry, which is highly dependent on monsoon and level of farm incomes.

Liquidity: Strong

SCIL enjoys strong liquidity. Expected annual cash accruals of Rs 260-280 crore in fiscals 2021 and 2022 and cash and cash equivalents of Rs 680 crore as on December 31, 2020 should comfortably cover moderate capex plan of Rs. 35-40 crore per annum for regular maintenance and up gradation of facilities and incremental working capital requirements. Utilisation of fund based bank lines has also remained sparse in the past 12 months ended December 2020. 

Outlook Stable

CRISIL Ratings believes SCIL’s business risk profile will improve steadily over the medium term, supported by the healthy demand for crop-protection products, and as the company leverages its balanced presence across key sub segments of crop protection and the strong brand and chemistry skills of its parent. Improving business risk profile will be complemented by its strong financial risk profile and liquidity.

Rating Sensitivity Factors

Upward Factors

  • Sustained growth of around 8-10% in earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), leading to significantly higher than expected cash accruals.
  • Significant improvement in working capital cycle (gross current assets less than 200 days) leading to material improvement in liquid surplus.
  • Sustenance of healthy credit metrics - gearing below 0.5 time

 

Downward Factors

  • Significant decline in revenues by over 15% and deterioration of operating margin to below 10%, adversely affecting the company’s cash flows
  • Large debt-funded capex or acquisition or elongation of working capital cycle leading to deterioration in key credit metrics – gearing above 1.0 time

About SCIL

SCIL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese chemical major, SCCL, engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of crop protection formulations based on the active ingredients procured from SCCL and third parties. It has manufacturing plants in Gujarat and Maharashtra and Dadar & Nagar Haveli.

 

SCCL had established Sumitomo Chemical India Pvt Ltd (SCIPL) in the year 2000 as its manufacturing and marketing base for crop protection products in India. Further, in order to fortify its business in India, SCCL had acquired a majority stake in ECCL in fiscal 2016.

 

ECCL, engaged in the manufacture of agrochemical formulations, was promoted by the Shroff family. The family held 24.72% in the company before it was taken over by Sumitomo group. Post the take-over, Sumitomo group held 65% stake in ECCL, with 20% stake held by SCIPL and 45% stake held by SCCL.

 

On August 31, 2019, the entire business and the undertaking of ECCL was transferred to SCIPL after the National Company Law Tribunal approved the Scheme of Amalgamation and the combined entity was renamed as SCIL.

Key Financial Indicators

Particulars

Unit

2020

2019

Revenue

Rs crore

2424

2212

Adjusted profit after tax (PAT)

Rs crore

205

166

PAT margin

%

8.4

7.5

Adjusted debt/Adjusted networth

Times

-

0.02

Adjusted interest coverage

Times

100.58

57.40

 

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)

Complexity level

Rating assigned with outlook

NA

Working Capital Facility*

NA

NA

NA

50.0

NA

CRISIL AA/Stable

NA

Proposed Working Capital Facility

NA

NA

NA

150.0

NA

CRISIL AA/Stable

*Interchangeable with Letter of credit and Bank guarantee

Annexure – List of entities consolidated

Names of Entities Consolidated

Extent of Consolidation

Rationale for Consolidation

Excel Crop Care (Africa) Ltd

Full

Common management, similar line of business, and business and financial linkages

Excel Crop Care (Europe) NV

Full

Common management, similar line of business, and business and financial linkages

 

Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years
  Current 2021 (History) 2020  2019  2018  Start of 2018
Instrument Type Outstanding Amount Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Rating
Fund Based Facilities LT 200.0 CRISIL AA/Stable   -- 31-01-20 CRISIL AA/Stable   --   -- --
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 Working Capital Facility 150 CRISIL AA/Stable Proposed Working Capital Facility 200 CRISIL AA/Stable
Working Capital Facility* 50 CRISIL AA/Stable - - -
Total 200 - Total 200 -
*Interchangeable with Letter of credit and Bank guarantee
Links to related criteria
CRISILs Approach to Financial Ratios
Rating criteria for manufaturing and service sector companies
CRISILs Bank Loan Ratings - process, scale and default recognition
Rating Criteria for Chemical Industry
CRISILs Criteria for Consolidation
The Rating Process

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