India Ratings Revises Aegis Logistics' Outlook to Positive, Affirms 'IND AA'

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has revised Aegis Logistics Limited's (AELL) Outlook to Positive from Stable, while affirming its LongTerm Issuer Rating at 'IND AA'.

Ind-Ra continues to take a consolidated view of AELL and its subsidiaries, given the integrated nature of their operations, the strong strategic linkages and the fungibility of cash flows among them.

The Positive Outlook reflects Ind-Ra's expectation of an improvement in the company's scale of operations post the formation of the joint venture (JV) with Royal Vopak N.V (Vopak) and the completion of the ongoing capex.

The JV company, which is to be named Aegis Vopak Terminals Ltd (JVCo, AVTL), will be 51% owned by AELL and 49% by Vopak, and will involve a transfer of a part of operational terminals (detailed below) of AELL and Vopak to the new JV, consolidated under AELL. Ind-Ra has been assessing AELL based on its consolidated financial profile. As per the management, even after the transaction, AELL will consolidate AVTL given the majority ownership. However, given the stake sale, AELL, the holding company is likely to receive INR27.66 billion pre-tax which would shore up the liquidity buffers meaningfully. The management expects AELL to draw upon the expertise of Vopak and see an accelerated growth through investments in new areas such as the handling of new gases and liquids, large-scale industrial storage complexes and renewable energy, among others. AVTL is likely to take up additional projects and could see a higher leverage as the scale of the project increases. Given the growth ambitions, Ind-Ra will continue to monitor the capex developments and the leverage that could follow.

Shares of Aegis Logistics Ltd. was last trading in BSE at Rs. 245.5 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 238.85. The total number of shares traded during the day was 149339 in over 4232 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 245.95 and intraday low of 231.2. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 35148935.

Source : Equity Bulls

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