THE Bharati Shipyard Ltd Board has reportedly consented to restructure INR 2,854 crore of its debt in a case referred earlier to the Corporate Debt Restructuring cell by the lenders.

In a communiqué to the stock exchanges, the company apprised that its Board had agreed to a proposal for restructuring of term/working capital debt of INR 2,854 crore, of the total debt of INR 3,250 crore.

The company's debt had swelled after the takeover of the Mumbai based offshore service firm, Great Offshore, two years ago, and also due to the subsequent downturn in the shipping sector.

While reports indicate that the lenders, led by the State Bank of India, had referred the company to the CDR cell, a company statement highlighted that it currently had an "order book visibility" worth INR 6,800 crore to be executed by 2014. It also pointed out that two of its greenfield shipyards, at Dabhol and Mangalore, were in advanced stages of completion.

Apprising that the floating dock facilities and the equipment acquired from a UK based shipyard were in advanced stages of commissioning, the statement expressed hope that this would enhance production capacity, which would be used to execute large orders going forward.

Even though a majority of the company's orders were from the European market, which is presently grappling with financial slowdown, the statement disclosed that Bharati Shipyard was in the process of delivering five vessels in the next six months.

Mr PC Kapoor MD expressed optimism that the debt restructuring would help the company to optimize costs and resources in future.

(Sourced from Exim News Service)